


Realm of Remnant

by Sillva



Category: RWBY
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Video Game World, Artificial Intelligence, Comedy, Drama, Fake Tags, Fantasy, Gen, Hacking, Tragedy, Video Game Mechanics
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-22
Updated: 2017-11-19
Packaged: 2018-05-08 10:18:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 82,596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5493647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sillva/pseuds/Sillva
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nora Valkyrie, also known as the Violet Valkyrie, she is a level 30 Warrior with the sub class of Berserker and the leader of The Violet Crusaders. The Crusaders are one of the most hardcore raiding guilds that the Realm of Remnant or ROR for short has ever known and through their collective efforts have achieved legendary status.</p><p>However not everything is so easy for our young heroine. With a new expansion on the horizon and internal conflicts threatening to destroy everything that she has built, her true struggle has only just begun.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. ROR Part 1: Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This is an idea I wanted to put out at some point or another. At this moment this is just a one shot but after I get some other stuff done and if there is enough support I would be happy to do more in this world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Unknown Narrator**

The Realm of Remnant or ROR as it is known by those who play it is what you would call a Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game or a MMORPG for short. And even though ROR was only released two years ago, it has quickly become not only the most poplar MMO but the most poplar video game in the world. I would image it is largely due to its incorporation of advanced VR or virtual reality technology and its unique combat mechanics that complement virtual reality so well. Though its massive success has caused several clones to pop up one after another and flood the market ROR still reins supreme as the only game that truly offers a complete immersive experience. And it does this while still delivering the fast paced and interesting game play that the fans crave.

Why am I telling you all of this? Well you’re the one who came to me were you not? So do forgive me for assuming you wanted to know more about my work. What you want me to go on? Are you sure? Alright good, now then where was I? Oh that’s right I was almost at the part where I tell you about our hero or our heroine in this case. As I told you earlier ROR is currently most poplar game in the world and being the most poplar game in the world means that it has an incredibly large and by extension diverse player base. And with the games deep lore and its incredibly large player base there is practically no end to the stories that could be told about it. There have been many adventures of all shapes and sizes, some happy, some sad, and some unlike any other. This story however is one of the latter. It is a story about a player who had rose above the crowd and built a legacy on their copses. However this is not a story about glory or fame. No, this is a story about what comes after. Where do you go once you have finally reached the mountain top? Logic dictates that there is only one direction left.

Who is this player? Well to her friends she is Nora Valkyrie a simple high school girl with far too much time on her hands. To everyone else however she is known as the Violet Valkyrie a level 30 Warrior with the sub class of Berserker and the leader of The Violet Crusaders one of the most hardcore raiding guilds in ROR’s history. In short Nora is what we call a no-lifer.

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

**Location: The Infernal Spire Raid Dungeon - Throne of the Dragon King  
Difficulty: 10 Player Heroic**

*RRROOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRR*

An ear piecing roar vibrated off the walls of the massive gilded chamber that made the stage for the final boss room. And at the roars epicenter stud a giant mass of armory scales, razor sharp claws, and leathery hide. The draconic figure’s eyes emitted a hateful red glow and it’s already armory body was covered in heavy plated golden armor that matched the chamber itself well enough to be called camouflage. Rested upon the creature’s massive scaly scalp rested an equally decadent crown while it gripped a set of gilded scimitars with one in each of its hands. Reflected in the beast’s hateful eyes and off nearly every surface in the chamber was the source of his ire. Before him at the entrance to the room stud a small group of five humanoid adventures. Completely dwarfed they were by the scale of the massive throne room and the opponent before them but each one stud tall and moved with quite confidence that suggested familiarity. Each of these adventures came equipped with weapons and armor so flashy they rivaled that of the king himself. Standing at the center of the group was a small girl who they called their leader. She was a Warrior dressed in hot pink and sterling silver armor and she wielding silver slug hammer so massive one would expect the petite girl to be crushed under its weight. However the girl seemed to wield the weapon with the same practiced easy a cheerleader would a devil stick.

When her opponent let out its fearsome battle cry the warrior girl simply shrugged off the ringing in her ears and set her expression into one of pure determination before she promptly returned the draconic beast’s roar. “That’s right come get us Dragon King!” She taunted.

This blatant act of challenge seemed to be all the incentive the draconic beast needed to go into an attack since it promptly broke into a rampaging charge with the pink clad warrior who had issued it said challenge directly in its path. The girl in question despite the fact she didn’t even come up to her attackers kneecaps didn’t seem slightest bit intimidated. Rather she only seemed to become more exited as she glanced up at her charging opponent. When she did she took note of the display that flashed above its head and its contents which read. Dagganoth, The Dragon King, Level ? Heroic Raid Boss. And it also showed a set of two bars one was green and represented its health while the other was a bright shade of blue and represented his mana and both bars seemed to have a ridiculously high numerical value attached to them.

As the creature closed the distance between itself and the warrior its jaw creaked open and something akin to words began to poor out of its gaping maw. **“Such arrogance! such insolence! You foolish mongrels dare to think you can trespass in my domain!? Perhaps after I crush your bones to dust you will learn your place. And once you have I shall boil the blood of your kin so the rest of your kind will remember it! Prepare yourselves, for I will send you all to oblivion!”** He spat with such venom one might mistake him for a snake rather than a dragon.

A moment later and he was within striking distance of the pink clad warrior and he let out another roar as he lifted one of his golden scimitars high above his head preparing to strike. The warrior however still remained in place unflinching until the beast’s blade was bearing down on top of her with such strength that it threaten to peal her like a banana. However before that unfortunate outcome could befall her one of her fellow adventures threw himself out from behind her and raised his own equally massive blade to intercept the incoming blow. When the pair of huge blades met the force of the impact was so great a shockwave was released that could have been felt from every corner of the throne room and following the path of least resistance the ground beneath the boy’s feet instantly took the brunt of the strike as cracks began to form under his feet. The girl glance over at her savor who was a young boy so large that he stud even taller than her warhammer and the boy’s muscular frame was covered from head to toe in heavy tan and brown armor plating. After the shockwave had subsided the boy turned his head back to the pink warrior and was greeted by her wide smile just barely visible under her Viking style helmet and he promptly returned it with a small smile of his own before speaking. “Gees Nora, leave it to you to take agro before we are even done strategizing! You trying to get us all killed again?” He complained causing the girl to glance above his head at his display which showed YatsuXhashi, Level 30 Warrior/Guardian. And she focused on his rather hefty health bar that seemed to have a small chunk of it missing due to the attack he and the floor had just absorbed.

“Oh stop you’re bellyaching you should be able to take a dozen more blows like that easy. And besides a noble knight such as yourself should be honor to be able to protect your queen should you not?” She retorted in a joking manor.

The boy shook his head before pushing up against his opponent and slamming his shoulder into the creature’s chest with all his might startling and sending the boss monster staggering backward flailing wildly. “You never change do you Nora?” He asked dryly.

The pink armored warrior known as Nora just gave him an apologetic shrug. “Sorry Yatsu, you know how I get some times.” She told him while letting out a nervous chuckle. “Besides we’ve done this a dozen times already, I think we all get the gist of it by now.” She reasoned.

“By some times you mean every time right? And may I remind you that we haven’t succeeded any of those times, so they hardly count.” Another one of her party members chimed in as she stepped forward. The girl was dressed in light leather armor and hoisted a large Gatling-gun in her hands which soon began to rev up and litter the crumbling ground with spent shell casings as it unloaded rounds into the boss’s body at a ridiculous pace. Instantly damage notifications began to fill up the area around the beast as each round impacted its armored hide. And once the girl began firing her own display appeared above her head showing the following. Caffeine Queen, Level 30 Gunslinger/Engineer, and it showed her mana bar slowly depleting with each shot of her Gatling-gun. 

Finally once the Boss had steadied itself it let out another savage roar causing the adventures to stagger backward slightly. **“I will crush you all!”** He howled before his scaly hide began to turn bright red and emanate a powerful energy as her entered into an enraged mode. Once the boss was enraged it quickly proceeded to charge towards Caffeine Queen completely intent on slicing her to pieces. Noticing this Nora decided it was time for her to join the melee herself and sprang into action.

“No you don’t!” She shouted as she activated her warrior leap ability to allow her to jump high into the air before going into a whirlwind attack that send her body into a spin allowing her to deliver savage strike to the side of the boss’s face causing a critical hit icon to pop up as the beasts head to jerk around and take the rest of its body along with it sending the boss into a dizzying spin of his own. Then once Nora had landed back on the ground beside the disorientated boss she spun around heels of her greaves to deliver another struck strike to the back of its right leg completely knocking it out from under him and sending him tumbling down to the ground flat on his back.

Unfortunately for the heroic adventures however the king of dragons was far from slain. As it made apparent at it whipped its tail around knock back his attackers and promptly began to hoist himself back up onto his feet. Once he was back up on one knee he began to shake his head and realized that it felt quite a bit lighter. Some time during Nora’s attack his crown had been knocked off his head and was now lying between himself and the pink clad warrior. So the king quickly sheathed one of his blades and reached out to reclaim it only to be halted when the same warhammer that had struck him came down on top of the flashy head ornament flatting it like a pancake. Instantly the burning red eyes of the beast darted upward to shoot an accusatory glare at the offending party. “Oops did I do that?! My deepest apologies your majesty my hand must have slipped. Though in my defense the crown never really suited you anyway, way too gouty.” Nora said in tone that had a tad of faked innocence and practically seeped sarcastic spite. Then when the boss let out a low threatening growl Nora’s expression and tone became slightly more serious as she took up another fighting stance. “I guess you can consider that payback for all the trouble you have caused up till now.”

Now furious beyond its ability to reason the boss once again roared in anger before pushing itself back up onto both of its feet and taking another swing at the cause of his humiliation. And once again YatsuXhashi jumped in between them to absorb the blow. Only this time the blow not only shattered the ground beneath him but it also caused him to collapse onto one knee and lose a much larger chunk of his health bar in the process. “Ouch that’s smarts! Even though we have done this so many times it still surprises me. The heroic enraged mode is really no joke!” He stated before activating a series of defensive abilities in an attempt to protect himself against the onslaught of blows that quickly followed the first. The boss was hammering away at him at a blinding speed and with an insane level of power causing his health bar jitter and shake violently as took critical hit after critical hit and he was quickly dropped below half of his maximum health. “Gees, you just had to antagonize him didn’t you!?” He complained to his leader.

“Hey he’s going to become enraged no matter what right? You know it’s always better to make sure its on cool down win we unload on him!” Nora explained before turning back to the rest of her party and glancing over towards a girl standing far in the back of the group with a set of long rabbit like ears extending out of her long brown hair. And the rabbit girl’s gaze was fixed tightly on Yatsu and the boss he was fighting. “Velvet he’s getting hammered over here where are those heals!?” Nora shouted.

“Chill love, I’m already working on it!” The girl responded as she waved around her staff and incited an incantation of some sort. A moment later and she slammed her staff down on the floor releasing a flash of bright green light that engulfed the surrounding area and caused Yatsu’s health bar to quickly climb back up into the green zone. And without missing a beat she once again began waving her hands around while calling out more incantations and a moment later stat buffs began appearing in her parties display boxes. “So, will that do?” The rabbit girl asked as she pulled out a blue potion from her satchel and promptly began to down it. Above her head her display appeared reading the following. The Velveteen Rabbit, Level 30 Mage/Cleric, and her slightly depleted mana bar began to steadily go back up as she drank the blue concoction.

After a few more minutes of narrowly avoiding cut in half or being burned to a crisp by boss and its enraged mode finally ended. This was the moment the adventures had been waiting for and they were prepared. “Alright Fox its time, do it!” Nora shouted towards the back of the chapter and right on queue a dark skinned boy with blood red hair came sprinting out of the shadows behind the boss’s throne and towards his back wielding a set of arm bladed bracers. The display above the boys head read as the following. Crimson Fox, Level 30 Assassin/Trickster. And just as they had planned the moment he appeared the boy quickly activate an ability called Mark for Death on the boss. An enemy that has been marked for death takes increased damage from all party members for a short amount of time. And then he launched into a furious series of slashing attacks directed right at the boss’s backside causing almost mind bogglingly large damage notifications to begin popping up which were also promptly followed by smaller bleed damage notifications.

The boss tried to turn around to shake off his new attacker but was pulled back by Yatsu’s taunt ability. “No you don’t big guy! It’s you and me, come on!” Yatsu shouted as he activated the rest of his defective abilities and glanced back at the rest of his team. “Alright guys don’t worry about pulling agro just nail him with everything you got!”

A wicked grin appeared across Nora’s face as she gripped her hammer tightly and without wasting any time she activated her own berserker rage ability. “You heard him Coco! Let’s end this!” She roared before leaping into the fray swinging wildly and was quickly followed by a rain of hot lead courtesy of Coco’s Gattling-gun. And before long the whole group was engaged in the melee.

////////////////////////////////////////////

**Two Hours Later**

After two whole hours of none stop combat the sound of panicked shouting, angry roars, and clashing steel was finally replaced with the sounds of huffing and puffing that came with complete exhaustion. And the group of heroic adventures released them with glee as they rested upon the body of the fallen Dragon King and a large pile of their assorted loot from the victory.

“I…can’t…believe…we really…did it.” Nora squeezed in between breaths before she began chugging down an Elixir to restore her depleted health.

“Yeah, when he went into his third stage right before his enraged mode came off cool down I thought we were goners for sure. I’m amazed you managed to tank through all that abuse Yatsu!” Coco added.

“Tell me about it! He was doing so much damage that I was worried I might actually get one shot! It’s a good thing we had Velvet keeping my health and buffs up.” Yatsu stated while playfully nudging the rabbit ear mage resting next to him.

Velvet giggled in response. “It was nothing, it’s really thanks Fox’s DPS that we were able to drop him before he could get his inferno burst spell off right there at the end. There is just no way I could’ve healed through another one of those.”

“Thanks Velvet but I only did a third of the damage, Coco and Nora really put in some work tonight.” Fox corrected causing the whole group to begin chuckling to themselves. “I guess we shouldn’t pat ourselves on the back so much huh?” He asked.

“What are you talking about silly!? We just beat the strongest boss in the game with only half a raid group! Sure it took us nearly a dozen tries but we’re the first ones to ever pull it off! That means we’re the best raiding party in the world!” Nora declared happily causing the rest of her group to give her a wide smile. “Just in time too, now we can go into the new expansion with our heads held high!” She declared while thrusting a fist up into the air in victory.

“Oh yeah the next expansion is coming soon isn’t it?” Coco asked in a slightly less than interested tone. “What was it called again? It was The Something Crusade right?” Coco inquired.

Nora gave Coco an incredulous look before breaking into a spirited rant. “It’s The Third Crusade silly buns! Come on I know you’re not good with names but how can you not already know this Coco!? I mean its kind of a big deal for us and it’s going to be completely amazing I can just feel it! They are adding improved AI functionality, a higher level cap, tons of new dungeons and quests, and of course there will be that new tournament mode as well!”

“Yeah that sounds cool I guess.” Coco stated in the same disinterested tone.

“Okay not the reaction I expected.” Nora thought to herself as she tilted her head slightly and stared intently at Coco as if trying to puzzle her out. “Alright I give, what’s up with you girl? You’re acting kind of weird you know that right? Come on show some excitement would you!” She said before glancing at the rest of her party for support. “Can you believe her you guys?!” She asked them in a half joking manner. However the pink clad warrior was surprised once again when the other three members of her team all gave her similarly weak responses and began to avoid her gaze. Seeing this unexpected reaction caused Nora’s cheerful expression to dip until it was completely overtaken by concern. “Okay what’s up with you guys?! Did I miss something here?! Why are all of you acting like somebody just died!? Shouldn’t we be celebrating the greatest victory we have ever had rather than moping!?”

Coco let out an audible sigh as she pushed herself up onto her feet to meet her leaders gaze. “Yeah about that, listen Nora, the truth is…” She began before trailing off for a moment to glance back at the other three members of the party who each gave her a nod and gestured for her to continue.

“The truth is, what Coco?” Nora asked with worry now not only clear on her face but also her voice.

“UGH! The truth is we won’t be playing much after the next expansion comes out.” Coco spat out.

Completely caught off guard by the Coco’s declaration Nora had to literally take a step back to process what the gunslinger girl had just told her. “Wait what…What do you mean? Why won’t you be playing much!? How much is ‘much’ Coco!”

Coco groaned as she rubbed the back of her neck and once again glanced back towards her party members who all nodded once again. “I mean we won’t really be able to play at all. I’m sorry Nora but this is it.”

Suddenly Nora’s body went ridged and her voice began to quake. “Wait hold on, I don’t understand! Why won’t you be playing!? Did I do something wrong!? If so I’m really sorry I didn’t mean! I know I get a bit too into at time but I’m sure I can…” Nora was cut off when Coco placed her hands on her shoulders to clam her down before shaking her head.

“It’s not your fault Nora, really it’s been a blast playing with you and we all wish we could keep doing it!” Coco reassured her.

Nora was viably shaking now. “Then why are you leaving? I just don’t understand.”

Coco took a deep breath before responding. “Look Nora, you know we’re all about to graduate from high school right? We have to prepare for collage entrances exams and we still have our part time jobs to worry about. We just don’t have the time right now. It was one thing when it was just the weekly raids but having to basically start over from scratch when the expansion comes out? Sorry but we just can’t do it, not right now.”

“So…so when do you think you will be coming back?” Nora inquired. Coco simply shook her head in response. “No, please! I can’t do this all on my own!” She pleaded.

Coco turned away from Nora and walked towards the rest of her party causing them to stand up to meet her. “I really am sorry Nora I wish we didn’t have to leave like this but at least we had one last adventure right?” She asked before she finally allowed a smile to come to her lips. “Besides you’re a great player and our… I mean your guild is really well known. I’m sure you won’t have any trouble finding a new raiding party. Anyway I guess this is it goodbye.” She said before reaching up to grasp the sides of her head and performing a pulling motion as if she were trying to remove her helmet and when she did she vanished into thin air.

***Caffeine Queen Logged Out***

Nora reached out to the rest of her party who were now waving to her. “No wait there’s still so much we could still…”

***Crimson Fox Logged Out***

***YatsuXhashi Logged Out***

***The Velveteen Rabbit Logged Out***

All of Nora’s please fell on depth ears as each of her friends vanished before her until she was the only one left remaining in the large ransacked throne room. And for a moment she was frozen as if waiting for some sign of her friends return. When nothing came she fell to her knees and her shaking returned with a vengeance. “What kind of joke is this? Why do things always turn out like this!? Why do I always end up alone!? I thought things would be different here! What have I been doing all this time!?” Then she began to scream in frustration as she reached her hands up around her head and pulled upward causing her character to vanish.

*** Violet Valkyrie Logged Out***

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Nora was now sat slumped over in her computer desk in the corner of her small pink colored bedroom. Lying on the floor beside her chair was her trusty VR headset. And as far as VR headsets went it was a cheap ugly looking thing but the heart shape sticker on the side always reminded her that it was hers and that she was lucky to even have this much. So she let out a long sigh before she reached over to fetch it off the floor and place it down on the desk in front of her. Then proceeded removed her motion sensor gloves that were covering her hands as well. With those out of the way she then glanced at her computer screen in front of her to see the ROR log in screen. Satisfied with knowing she was properly logged out she quickly grabbed hold of her mouse and closed out of the program. And with that she leaned for to rest her elbows on her desk and began cradling her head in her hands. There she stayed holding this position for several minutes until a familiar voice broke her from her stupor.

“Finally back in the real world huh?” A soft male voiced called out to her from behind.

Nora turned around to see her childhood friend and current caregiver Lie Ren standing at the door to her room wearing a silly pink apron. She quickly turned away for a moment to wipe her eyes before replying. “Yeah I’m back.” She said while letting out a sigh.

This caused Ren to raise an eyebrow. “You seem down did you guys wipe again?” Ren asked.

Nora shook her head before forcing a smile on to her face. “No are you kidding!? The only wiping that accrued was between the Dragon King and the floor! We’re totally legendary now! Do you want to get my autograph before I need to start charging for them?”

Ren shuck his head and chuckled. “Oh is that right? You must be quite tired then? I know just the thing for that.” He said as he turned back towards the door. “Food is just about ready and just to let you know it’s your favorite. I will see you in the dinning room.” He told her as he slipped out of the room.

Once Ren was out of the room Nora’s fake smile melted away and she began glancing around her room as if it were suddenly alien to her. Along pink painted wall were shelves adorned with all manner of trophies and ribbons for different athletic achievements most prominently track and field. After a moment of this her eyes seemed to snap back to her desk as if she were trying to look away from the sun. And when she did they lucked onto a set of two framed pictures next to her computer monitor. One was of her together with her parents about three years ago. And the next to it was one of her from just last year. In that picture she was with Ren and his family. It was taken the day they took her in. It was only a few weeks after the accident. Nora let out another long sigh as she placed her hands on chair and began rotating the wheels to back it up and turn it towards her door. After a moment of difficulty she glanced down at the wheeled chair she was rested on with distain. “Yep, this is the real world alright.” She spat before forcing the chair into motion and wheeling herself towards her door and disappearing into the hallway.


	2. ROR Part 2: Gear and Guilds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Guild recruitment is on the rise for the upcoming expansion but where is our heroine?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright you asked for it so here it is! Chapter two is here.

The Realm of Remnant, a game that is widely considered to be the most poplar MMORPG in the world. As such it has a population of players that stretches into the millions. With so many different players in the Realm, there is virtually no limited to how many different types of people one could encounter in their journey. Because of this diversity, there have been many unlikely relationships formed within ROR’s virtual space. Both friends and lovers have found one another. However, it is always best to be weary for in the virtual space not all is always what it seems to be.

////////////////////////////////////////////////

**Realm of Remnant: Kingdom of Vale: Vale City**

The City of Vale, it is one of Remnants four largest cities and the capital of the Kingdom of Vale. The four capital cities of ROR act mainly as a sort of safe zone. A place for its players many things without needing to worry about getting attacked by hordes of monsters. A few of the things these cities off are shops for buying and selling items, NPC’s that can give out quests, and of course lots of open space for socializing.

Unlike many other games in the same genre, none of the cities in ROR are locked to any one race or class. So it’s really up to a player’s preference which city they choose to make their home. With that said, the City of Vale has always been the most poplar city amongst the vast player base. The reasons for this favoritism the cases are numerous, such as its centralized location on the world map, its easily navigated layout, and its beautiful scenery. Though, the reasons for why Vale was so poplar weren’t really that important.

What was important was that the Vale’s popularity made it so it was never devoid of activity. The streets were always alive with the hustle and bustle of hundreds and some times even thousands of players and that made it an awe inspiring site to see.

Also with the upcoming release of ROR’s newest expansion, Vale was even more lively than usual, with both new and old players coming in droves to check things out.

The developers were continually teasing something called Vitale Festival Guild Tournament. Apparently it was to coincide with the approaching expansion the Third Crusade. With so many people swarming Vale, the player guilds were all out in full force trying to recruit new members and prepare themselves. However, since the details of the Guild Tournament hadn’t been released to the public yet, one could only guess the guilds were just trying to be ready for anything.

Among the many players weaving through the madness of the crowded streets was a lone female warrior. She had bright blue eyes, long blond hair, shining white armor, and her only weapon seemed to be a massive two handed claymore sword that was strapped securely to her backside. The girl’s character display read as the following. Joan of the Ark; Level 30 Warrior/Swordmaster.

As she wondered through the streets, the girl’s eyes were wide and seemed to glint in amazement. Everywhere she looked she found something interesting. There were banks, auction houses, NPC owned food stalls, Inns, Blacksmith shops, and even small player owned shops were lining the streets. These shops really seemed to peak her interest since they were selling player made items such as potions, food, and equipment. The girl’s eyes stopped for a moment when they cot a glimpse of a surprisingly well crafted lower level shield.

She approached the shop keeper who she noted was a young human male character dressed what appeared to fairly rare equipment. When she did, the man quickly noticed her interest and addressed her. “See something you like miss?” He asked politely before adding. “Everything is for sale, for the right price.” He emphasized that last bit with a wink.

“Oh, no I… Umm, the shield is kind of interesting.” The girl stuttered in response. Her voice was slightly deeper and squeakier than one might expect which caused the shop keeper to raise an eyebrow. The girl’s voice seemed to level out before she continued. “The shield, can I see it please?”

The shop keeper hesitated for a moment, but just shrugged before complying. “Ah the shield, it is an interesting piece indeed.” He replied before he fetched the item in question and held hold and held it out for the girl to inspect. Once she had inspected the shield, a few details popped up to her. The shield’s info told her it was a Heavy Soul Shield; Level 1 was to wield it required; only Warrior Classes could wield it; and it that it would bind to her account when it was equipped.

“Soul Shield?” She said in a questioning tone.

“Haven’t seen a Soul weapon before have you? Well, I suppose it’s not that strange that you haven’t. They’re a fairly rare item after all, and at your level, I guess they wouldn’t really do you much good anyway.” The shop keep stated.

“Alright, so what type of item is this then?” The girl inquired.

“Well they are basically a type of equipment that gains experience and levels up along with their user. They make for really good training equipment at lower levels since they level up fast and tend to be better than most other gear you will find below level 20. That means using Soul equipment will save you from having to worry about hunting down equipment upgrades from venders and low level dungeons.” The shop keeper explained.

Hearing the shop keeps explanation seemed to make the girl’s blue eyes light up before she glanced back at the shield in her hands in awe. “Did you make this yourself?!” She asked excitingly.

The shop keeper chuckled lightly and sensing a sale coming he put on a small grin before responding. “I wish I could take credit for that one little missy, but it was a rare monster drop. Or at least that’s what I was told by the person who sold it to me. And since it doesn’t have a makers mark and I haven’t seen any other copies of this item going around, I’m inclined to believe them.

“You haven’t seen any more around? It’s that rare?” the girl asked, and when the man gave her a nod her shoulders deflated slightly. “I guess that means it’s quite expensive huh?” She asked.

“Well it isn’t cheap, not as far as starting item go that’s for sure. Though, I’m sure for a high level player such as yourself, you could afford it no problem. Here I can show you the price.” The shop keeper said as he opened a trade window and a large gold figured appeared on the display.

Suddenly the girl’s expression dropped as she gazed at the number displayed. She then opened up her inventory and glanced down at her small wallet icon which displayed the amount of gold she currently had. She had just about enough to buy the shield three times but… “Sorry sir, it is a nice shield but will have to decline.” She stated solemnly while passing the shield back to its owner.

The shop keeper frowned but nodded in understanding while he grasped the shield and set it back on its display. “Don’t sweat it kid. If it were an easy purchase to justify I wouldn’t still have it sitting in my shop right? Just remember that if you change your mind, you know where to find me alright.” He reassured the girl while giving her the most sincere smile he could manage.

With that the girl gave the shop keeper one final nod before turning to walk back into the mass of the crowds. The whole time they had their head sagged and were staring longingly at their inventory. Then she let out a long sigh and began speaking to herself in a slightly manlier voice. “Man this sucks, if only I had this much gold on my own account. I’m half tempted to just say screw it and buy the bloody thing, but there’s no way my sister won’t notice. And there is no way she would be okay with me spending that much gold on an item for myself. Heck, if she really got mad, she might never let me play on her account again and that would suck even worse.” She grumbled allowed before suddenly being interrupted by the sound a far rougher male voice calling out to her.

“Hey there, I couldn’t help but notice you were in a bit of a jam. Maybe I could be of some?” The voice asked.

The girl turned her head around toward the source of the voice to see a small group of boys in armor approaching her. She noted that there were four boys in total and a quick glance at their displays told her the rest. Russel Thrusher; Level 27 Assassin/Hunter, Sky Larking; Level 25 Warrior/Guardian, Dove Wingbronzer; Level 28 Gunslinger/Duelist, and the one who seemed to have been the one who called out to her was a player by the name of The Cardinal of Winchester. He was a level 30 Warrior/Berserker and by far the largest and flashiest of the group. The Cardinal’s character model was seriously huge. By the looks of it, she had to assume that the boy just pushed the height bar all the way up to max when customizing his human character. Also the boy was equipped with heavy high level armor and had an equally massive mace strapped to his waist.

Joan looked at the boys for a moment before taking a look around and after she found no one else they might be trying to talk to pointed to herself. “Do you mean me?” She asked.

The boys shared a quick chuckle amongst themselves before the massive bird boy continued. “Yes you. I couldn’t help but notice that you weren’t able to get that shield you wanted. You look really depressed about it, so being the good natured guy that I am, I thought hey why don’t I do you a solid and buy it for you. What do you think?” The boy inquired as he leaned in closer to Joan.

“What? You would really do that for me?!” Joan shouted unable to hold in her excitement.

“Yeah of course, all I would need you to do is one little favor for me in return.” He went on to say.

“Of course there’s a catch.” Joan grumbled to herself before speaking allowed. “What do you want?” She huffed.

“Nothing really, just your eternal soul would do.” He said jokingly garnering another round of chuckling from the boys. “Really though, all I would need you to do is sign up with our guild and become a member.”

Joan gave them an incredulous look before responding. “You want me to sign up with your guild?”

“That’s right.” The Cardinal responded.

“Why do you want me to sigh up with them?” Joan questioned.

“Well I noticed that you didn’t happen to have a guild tag already. I don’t know if you are just between guilds or what, but finding a level 30 player that isn’t signed up with any guild is already really rare these days. And let’s be frank here, if I managed to recruit a player like you, well that I might finally be enough to move me up in the ranks. Also in return you will not only get your shield, but also all the perks that comes with being in out guild. So how about it, you scratch my back I scratch yours?” He offered while sending a guild invite and a cocky smile to Joan.

Joan looked over the guild invitation inspecting the information provided carefully. The name of the guild was The Black Wings and they seemed to be a fairly large guild with over one-hundred members in total. Also it said that as long as she attended regular guild meetings and events she would gain access to the guild hall and bank. The guild bank would likely contain extra equipment, potions, and crafting materials she could use to prepare for said events which would be quite helpful. All and all it didn’t seem like such a bad deal and if her sister didn’t like being a part of the guild, she could just quit.

With that thought Joan suddenly felt her hand moving down towards the invites’ accept button. And just as suddenly she felt her hand being forced to stop. “What, huh?” She said in a confusing as her attention was pulled way.

Joan glanced up to her right to see a bronze armored hand grasping her own and pulling it back. Then her gaze followed the arm up to its owner and she found a short boy with bright green eyes and long silky red hair that was tied up in a ponytail and reach down to their waist. She also noted that the boy was covered in head to toe with matching bronze armor, but the armor didn’t stand out as anything impressive. When Joan read the boys display she realized why his armor was so unimpressive. His character name was Troy Nikos and he was only Level 1 Warrior and had no subclass to speak of.

Catch Joan’s stare, the boy gave her a small smile before speaking in a strangely low voice, as if they were trying to sound tougher. “Hello there, sorry for interrupting so suddenly like that, but I felt like I had to do something. You see I don’t think you should join up with a guild like theirs.” He stated and when Joan leveled a perplexed look on him, he went on. “The Black Wings are way to demanding of their members and mostly only hold PVP events. Maybe I’m reading you wrong, but you don’t look like you would be into that sort of thing. If your not, then I don’t think you’ll have any fun playing with them.” He explained.

Joan took on an even more confused expression while trying to piece together what was going on. “What but I was just…” She began before unintentionally glancing back over at the shield.

The bronzed boy gave Joan another smile before speaking again. “Hey if all you really want is just that shield I could buy it for you. Also if a guild is what you want, you can also just join up with my guild. I know you will have a much better time with us then if you joined up with the Black Wings.”

Realizing what was happening, The Cardinal’s expression quickly shifted from mild annoyance to anger as he began to shout at the red haired boy. “Hey what the heck do you think you’re doing you little punk!? We saw her first, now why don’t you back off!”

In spite of the far larger boy’s verbal assault, the red haired boy’s smile only widened as he turned to steal a glance at the other boy then promptly returned his focus to Joan. “Wow this one is quite hostile isn’t he? Now do you see what I’m saying? You don’t really want to party up with these loudmouthed jerks now do you?”

“I… I don’t know what…Wahh!” Joan tried to say before suddenly being pushed aside as the Cardinal stormed over to glare daggers down into the eyes of the red haired boy.

“Why thank you, the sun was getting in my eyes.” The red hair boy quipped.

The Cardinal didn’t seem to find it very funny and proceeded to shove a finger into the boys face. “Listen here you cocky little runt, I will not stand here and be made a fool of by a no name noob like you. Your out of your league and if you don’t learn your place quick, well I guess me and my boys will just have to teach it to you.” He threatened.

“Is that a challenge?” The red haired boy asked while raising a questioning eyebrow. Based on his body language, he was far from impressed.

“And what if it is huh? What are you going to do about it? Well noob?” The Cardinal inquired with an arrogant tone.

Another wide grin appeared on the red haired boys face before he responded. “Then I accept.” He announced much to the disbelief of everyone bearing witness to the event, which by now was quite the crowd curious players who were drawn by the yelling.

For a moment The Cardinal was stunned into silence completely unsure of what he had just heard. Finally shaking himself out of it, he returned to glaring at the smaller boy. “I’m sorry for a moment there I must have had crazy in my ear, did you just say that you accepted?”

“Yes I did, don’t tell me your depth and dumb because I really don’t have the time for that.” The red haired boy retorted, causing several onlookers to gasp and laugh.

Even one of The Cardinal’s boys began to laugh but he muffled with his hand and then it was completely silenced when The Cardinal shot him a Baneful glare. Then he turned back to the smaller boy. “Alright runt, you want to do this fine by me. Let’s have a one on one duel right here and right now. The winner gets the swordmaster, and loser has to shut their mouth and get to stepping.”

The red haired boy gave a nod before speaking. “Is that all?” He asked with a hint of disappointment in his voice.

“What are you on about?” The Cardinal asked.

“Well, I just think that’s a bit boring. How about we really put our money where our mouths are? On top of everything you have just mentioned, how about the loser also hast to fit the bill for Joan’s shield?” The red haired boy offered.

Hearing the boys offer caused The Cardinal to begin to laugh to himself. “Wow, can you believe this kid?!” He asked his fellow guild members who all either gave him a none committal shrug or joined him in laughter. “Man you got balls for somebody who hasn’t even had them drop yet. I mean, you really don’t know what you’re getting yourself into do you? Well whatever, its fine. You’re on, and as a show of good faith, I will even let you choose your opponent.” He declared before he motioned towards his other three guildmates. “You can choose to fight any one of us.”

“Wow how nice of you!” The boy deadpanned before putting on a contemplative expression. “My, my who should I pick? There are just so many options.” He mused while pointing his finger back and forth over the boys. He noticed the player by the name of Sky Larking was starting to limber up, he was clearly expecting to be the one to get picked. In theory he would make the most since, after all he was the lowest level player out of the group. However, the boy’s finger didn’t stop on Sky. The figure came to a stop right where it had started, pointing directly at The Cardinal himself. “I choose you Cardinal.” He declared confidently.

Then much to the shock of everyone a duel challenge notification appeared in front of The Cardinal with a gold wager equal to the price of the shield. Seeing this The Cardinal began to chuckle like a manic. Once his hysterical laughter finally died down he took on a deathly serious tone and expression. “You really are a noob, you clearly don’t know how things work around here. I guess I have no other choice then.” He said as he moved his hand over the accept button and slammed his fist down on it.

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Normally the cities of ROR are safe zones in which players are unable to deal any damage to each other or NPC’s. However, that is just the case normally. There are always exceptions to just about any rule in ROR. Duels are one example of an exception to this rule.

Players are able to challenge each other to duels at any time and any place including cities. Once a duel challenge has been issued, the challenged player will have a chance to read through the rules of the duel which are set by the challenger before hand. They will learn what’s being wagered (if anything) and then they will choose to either accept or decline the duel.

A duel is normally decided once at least one player’s health is dropped down to less then ten percent of their maximum Hit Points. Once it is over, all wagered items instantly go to the victor.

Player verses Player combat or PVP for short, is a large selling point for many ROR players. For you see, ROR offers one of the most skill intensive and flushed out combat systems currently on the market. Of course like all MMORPGs, gear and level are very important in every aspect of the game. However, in ROR’s PVP, gear and level aren’t the only deciding factors.

For the sake of greater realism in ROR, players are give full range of movement, and are able to move and swing their weapons however they wish, which means the only delay between attacks will come when the player chooses to stop swinging. Additionally striking any unguarded areas of the body will completely ignore their armor bonus and striking vital parts of the body such as the head and heart will add a percentage of the attacked players maximum health to the damage the attackers weapons is dealing. Because of this system, even if your opponent has 1,000,000HP and your weapon could only deal a single damage at a time. It would still be possible to defeat your opponent by striking past their armor and hitting their weak points.

It is not unheard of in ROR, for a player to lose in combat to another player of up to 10 levels below them. Though, this is one of the most extreme cases to be known in the game so far.

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// 

With the promise of an interesting fight or a quick execution ahead, the large crowd of players that had gathered was now spreading out to form a tight circle around Joan and the two duelists. The Cardinal of Winchester, the level 30 Warrior/Berserker and Troy Nikos, the level 1 Warrior with no sub class.

A mix of spirited cheers and hushed whispers filled the air around the two fighters. While as for Joan, she now found herself sat awkwardly off to the side trying to figure out how she had gotten herself into this mess. She could vaguely hear a few players in the crowd exchanging gossip on the topic. It would seem to them that the two boys in front of her were fighting for her affections. And while she had to admit, it made since given the circumstances, it wasn’t quite right. Though, regardless of how this happened, all she could really do now is sit and wait for it to be resolved. She just hopped that this red haired boy knew what he was doing.

Troy Nikos took a deep breath and drew his sword before taking a fencing stance with the blade extended straight out in front of him. The sword itself was a basic double edged sword that you could get just about anywhere, but it was clear that it had been heavily enchanted based on the bright glow it gave off. The same was true for the rest of his equipment as well. This seemed quite strange to Joan. Though, equipment enchantments were not very hard to come by, as far as she was aware it was rare to see them used on items of such a low level. After all, what would be the point of buffing up equipment you would out grow in just a few hours of playing?

The Cardinal didn’t seem too bothered by boys equipment and just stepped forward and drew his mace from his waist and took a ready stance. “Are you ready now?” He asked while taking a few practice swings of his weapon.

“What, I was waiting on you.” Troy retorted.

The Cardinal shrugged in response. “Oh, is that so. I just didn’t want anyone saying I blindsided you when I win. Since your ready now I guess I will get us started!” He roared as he gripped his mace with both hands and broke into sprint towards Troy. With his long strides it took the boy no time at all to close the distance between them and when he did, he lifted his mace high over his head and prepared to bring it back down at full force. “Say goodnight pretty boy!”

When the Cardinal’s mace slammed into the ground it caused a cloud of dust to shoot up around him obscuring everyone’s view of the battle. For that brief moment, the crowd was sure that the battle had already ended, but when the dust finally did settle a gasp rang out. Not only was the lower level player still standing, but the Cardinal’s health had been the only one that had taken any damage in the exchange. The amount of missing HP he lost was only a drop in the bucket, but the first strike went to Troy who was now standing behind the massive brute with his blade in his backside.

The Cardinal looked back at his opponent with and expression that said he had no idea what had just happened and Troy greeted him with a smile. “Still feeling confident Birdie?” Troy taunted.

“Don’t get cocky kid. This amount of damage is nothing. Besides that was a lucky shot and you know it! It won’t happen again.” The Cardinal declared before spinning in place and rushing after the red haired boy once again.

This time the Cardinal swooped in from the side to take a swing for the boys head. However, the boy quickly dunked under the swing before thrusting his sword forward and jamming it right into the open joint of the Cardinal’s plate armor and jabbing him in the chest. The Cardinal’s HP bar jerked violently in response to blow as his vitals took a direct hit.

“AHHH! Why you little…” The Cardinal tried to hiss before Troy yanked his blade from The Cardinal’s chest and sliced it across his throat causing him to become silenced momentarily while his health bar dropped even lower.

With the Cardinal left unable to use his abilities due to the silence, Troy continued to press his attack, lashing out at the larger boy over and over again and chipping away at his health bit by bit. During this onslaught, the Cardinal just flailed around his mace wildly in the hope that it would hit its mark only to completely whiff each time. A moment later when the silence finally faded, The Cardinal used a warrior ability known as mighty leap to jump up into the air and land several feet away from his attacker.

“What’s the matter Birdie? I thought it was just a lucky shoot?” Troy taunted.

The Cardinal gripped his mace tightly as he felt the rage building up inside of him. “Oh you’re so dead, you little punk!” He roared as he triggered his berserker’s battle rage ability. Once a berserker becomes enraged, all of their stats are increased based on the amount of damage that they have taken in the battle so far. Then after he was enraged, he charged towards Troy once more swinging his mace even more franticly then before. This time however, the swings were far fast and the power behind them was unquestionably dangerous.

Troy was ready for his opponent and easily dunked and weaved out of each strike while he continued to land one hit after another. Time blow was steadily chipping away at The Cardinal’s hit points, but also serving to increase the berserker’s rage.

After about a solid minute of this one sided violence, the Cardinal finally seemed to have enough of it and raised his mace up into the air before he bring it down to strike the ground at his feet. One would think that the mace set off a bomb when it struck the ground, because the impact released ear popping shockwave that shattered the pavement and kicked up rubble in every direction.

Troy quickly leapt over the wave of stone, flipped through the air, and with an acrobats grace, he landed atop the Cardinal’s shoulders. Noticing the extra weight, the larger boy glanced up to see Troy perched on top of him and the moment he did, his mouth fell open in shock. That was a mistake and Troy took advantage of it, by sinking his blade right down into the larger boy’s throat. The edge sunk all the way down to the hilt and the blade struck several vitals on the way down causing the Cardinal’s HP bar to shake wildly as multiple critical blow markers appeared and his health was dropped into the red zone.

**“Winner, Troy Nikos.”** A digital announcer chimed in.

“Well I guess that’s that then.” Troy stated as he pulled his blade free from the Cardinal’s throat causing the large boy to slump over and begin instinctively gagging.

For a moment after that, the crowd was silent. It was obvious that they were equally as shocked as The Cardinal, but after everything had sank in, they broke into a fevered cheer. Troy paid them little mind as he waited for the screen to pop up to allow him to collect his prize. Once he had it, he walked a few feet over to the shop keeper who had also been watching from his stall and seemed to be just as dumbfounded as everyone else. “Sorry for all the noise we caused mister. If it’s alright I would like to buy that shield you have.” He declared.

The shop keep shook himself out of his stupor he had been put in and quickly reached over to grab hold of the shield and present it to the customer. “Right, here you go kid. Man that was an amazing fight just now! You’re really something!”

“Thank you.” Troy said happily before turning back towards Joan and handing her the shield. “Here you go, I hope you enjoy it.” He said before walking away without another word.

Joan sat there a moment looking at the shield unsure of what had just transpired and then she finally jumped up to her feet and chased after the red haired boy. “Hey wait up!”

//////////////////////////////////////////////////

A few minutes later after breaking through the crowd Joan finally managed to catch up the warrior boy. “Hey wait up!” She shouted, but when it seemed like he didn’t notice she picked up speed. “Wait up dang it!” 

The boy must have finally heard Joan, since he turned around and direct a wide smile in her direction. “Yes, is there anything else I can help you with?” He asked her.

“Didn’t you say you wanted me to join your guild or something?” She inquired slightly breathlessly. One thing she didn’t care for in this game was its constant need to simulate just about everything. This included their character’s need to breathe.

Troy pressed a finger to his chin as if he was in thought. “Yeah, I guess I did say something like that.” He said before giving Joan a shrug. “However, I realized that it would be rather hypocritical of me to force you into joining my guild after what I said to the birdie boy back there.” He responded.

“What if I want to join you guys!?” Joan asked in a serious tone.

This must have been the response Troy was hoping for since a sly grin snuck its way onto his face before he responded. “So you want to join then?”

“Yes!” Joan responded instantly.

“Do you think you got what it takes?” Troy asked as he crossed his arms and looked at Joan as if he was sizing her up.

Joan’s expression dropped slightly as she began to rub the back of her neck. “Well, not really if I’m being honest, but that’s why I want to join you.” Joan responded shyly.

“What do you mean by that?” Troy inquired curiously.

“I want you to train me! I want to fight like you do! It was the coolest thing I ever saw!” Joan responded.

Troy broke into a light laugh before responding. “You seriously a level 1 like me to train you, a level 30? Doesn’t that seem a little backwards to you?” He asked

Joan’s expression fell a little more when he was hit with a sudden realization. “I umm…” Joan’s words caught in her throat for a moment. “The truth is, I’m not really what I seem to be.”

“Oh?” Troy said while cocking one of his eyebrows. “And what are you Miss Joan?” He inquired.

“That’s just it.” She stated before her voice seemed to crack and become slightly deeper. “The truth is that this is really my big sister’s account and I only want this shield for my real character. So basically what I’m trying to say is that I’m actually a boy and I’m a total noob!” Joan explained.

Joan’s rant caused Troy to break into another laughing fit. “Don’t sweat it kid. You wouldn’t be the first to pretend to be something their not here. To be honest I haven’t been completely up front with you either. This is really just my back up account that I use for storing extra items. For certain reasons my real account has been a little hard to walk around in without garnering attention lately you see.” He explained before taking a moment to let his words sink in. When Joan gave him a nod he moved on. “So how about we do this. Let’s meet back here at this time tomorrow with our real accounts. If you still want to join or for me to train you, we can go from there. Does that sound fair to you?” He asked.

Joan’s eyes widened and a massive smile broke across his face. “Really? Thank you so much, I will be there!” She (He) exclaimed causing Troy to give them a nod of agreement before he turned to leave, but then Joan called out to him once again. “Wait one more thing. What is your guild’s name?” He asked.

“Oh, I guess I haven’t mentioned that have I? My guild’s name is the Violet Crusaders.”

**To Be Continued...**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if you were hoping for more Nora in this chapter but don't worry. She will be back very soon. Though I don't know when I will be able to update again. I am having internet problems and can't update regularly but. I had this chapter ready to go for awhile.


	3. ROR Part 3: Friends and Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A peek into the real life of our hereons.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a little different in the since that I wanted to create a chapter that focused on the lives of the characters outside the game. I would really like to know what you think of this chapter since it is something I am strongly considering doing more of in the future. Also I was in a bit of a rush to push this one out so feel free to point out any spelling errors.

**Unknown Narrator**

As technology advances and video games become more and more realistic and engaging it some times becomes hard to remember the fact that at the end of the day it's all just a series of ones and zeros. And the Realm of Remnant has introduced so many new advancements in this area that it has only made it harder to tell the difference. ROR's VR headset not only allows you to see and hear the world around you but. It is even able to simulate touch, taste, and even smell. On top of this every headset is equipped with a built in mike which allows you communicate with nearby players and even some NPCs.

With that said the opposite can also be true. It can be easy for a player to forget that the other players around them are real people with their own lives outside of the game. And more times then not a player will over look the fact that everything that exists in the game had to have been made by a real person. Every tree, rock, and blade of grass had to have been developed by some one. And when your job requires your work to go unnoticed, it becomes hard not to want to leave your own personal stamp on the game. These personal stamps are often referred to as "Easter Eggs".

////////////////////////////////////////////////

After saying his goodbyes to Joan of the Ark Troy Nikos went off into town to complete several small chores. Chores such as chucking his mail, sorting his bank, putting items up for auction, and checking the market place for any good deals. Once he was satisfied with his tasks completed he glanced over at the in game clock to see the time. "9:00pm already? I guess today has been eventful. I should get off and start getting ready for bed. Summer Vacation is nearly over and my final year of high school starts tomorrow." He said to himself as his hands reached upward like he was removing a helmet.

***Troy Nikos Logged Out***

////////////////////////////////////////////////

On the other side of the computer screen sat a young woman with long red hair holding her VR headset in her hands. And she promptly released a small yawn before standing up from her seat and stretching out her arms, upon doing so her limbs released a pleasant popping sound. Then she placed her right hand over her left shoulder and began to roll it and repeated the act in reverse. "You sit around so long and your body goes all stiff. It's a shame we can't use our own legs in game but I can see how that could cause difficulties." She complained before once again checking the clock on her computer. "I guess I still have time for a quick workout before bed" She decides as she leaves her desk and makes her way to the back of the room where her closet is located. She quickly slides open the door and pulls out a brown and white track suit with a school emblem embroidered on it.

Once she slips into the track suit she glances over at her night stand where her alarm clock is located to double check the time and her eyes wonder to a nearby photograph. It appears to be a group photo with a few dozen girls wearing a similar track suit to the one she's wearing now. They all look rather happy in the picture as if celebrating a victory. A smile momentarily spreads across her face but quickly fades as her eyes come to a stop on one of the girls in the photo. Standing beside her in the photo was a much shorter girl who also has red hair though a much shorter and a different shade. That girl was smiling wider than anyone else in the photo and was giving her a set of bunny ears.

An almost somber expression comes over the girls face as she steps closer to the photo and picks it up to hold in her hands. She is finally broke out of her sorry state when a loud female voice calls out to her. "Pyrrha, dear are you still playing that game!? Summer vacation is over you know!?" The female voice says before the door to the girl's room is pushed open to reveal a much older woman with similar features dressed in an evening gown. The older woman glances at the computer desk and when she notices nobody is there she starts to glance around the room until the two of them make eye contact. "Oh you're already with us."

Pyrrha gives her mother a smile as she places the photo back on her night stand. "Yeah, by the way mother didn't I tell you to knock before coming into my room." She said in an almost playful manor.

Pyrrha's mother returns her daughters smile before she retorts. "I tried that honey but you never hear me knock when you're playing that game of yours."

Pyrrha rolls her eyes before emitting her defeat and stepping past her mother into the hallway. "Alright you win. I'm going out for a quick jog, be back in about half an hour."

Suddenly Pyrrha's mother seemed slightly uneasy. "You know I don't like you going out this late."

Pyrrha let out a soft sigh before turning back around to look at her mother. "Mom its fine, I will just do a few laps around the block and come right back you don't need to worry so much."

"Still honey I can't help but worry. With all those stories I always hear about girls jogging alone at night." Her mother responds with a slight shudder.

Pyrrha grips the bridge of her nose tries to retain her patience. "Mom how many times have I told you that you need to stop watching all those murder investigation shows on TV? Their making you become paranoid. It's not even 10pm yet and I'm already eighteen years old now, I'm not a little kid anymore. Besides I'm the captain of the track team a reason you know? No way that any old creeper is going to be able to catch me. Lastly even if they do corner me I can handle myself, you and father did make me take all those self defense classes after all." Pyrrha reasoned.

"Your right honey, I'm sorry. I guess your father and I just can't help but worry about you. It's just that after so many failed attempts we were almost ready to give up on children at all but. Then you finally came along and mind you we would have accepted any child but to get some one like you well… I guess what I'm trying to say is that we know gifted you are but you'll always be our little girl." Pyrrha's mother explains as tears began to appear in her eyes.

Pyrrha's expression seemed to soften as she stepped towards her mothers drooping figure and hoisted her up into a tight hug. "I know mom, I know. I'm sorry mom."

////////////////////////////////////////////////

**Unknown Narrator**

If I may inquire what high school did you want to attend as child? You didn't have a preference? Well that is not unusual I suppose, for most youths of today their high school is little more than an after thought. For those select few who are accepted into Beacon Academy the number one private school in the country it's a very different story however. Getting accepted is never an accident. Many young children spend several years preparing just for a shot at getting accepted. And though the Academy offers many academic and athletic scholarships every applicant is required to pass a rigorous written exam to qualify but. Those who do make the cut they are rewarded with unlimited access to all the best computers and training equipment money can buy as well one of the most qualified and motivated teaching staffs in the world.

This insures that any student who passes through its halls is sure to find success. Or at least that is how it's suppose to work but. Life is rarely so simple. Even when you do everything right some times it will throw you a curve ball as our hereon knows all too well.

////////////////////////////////////////////////

**Beacon Academy**

It is the end of the first day of school after the end of Summer Vacation. And the halls are alive with movement as the students file out of the classrooms to join their respective clubs while the freshmen students walk the campus in search of the right club for them. Nora Valkyrie other hand found herself unsure as she wheeled herself down the halls with her close friend Lie Ren close beside her.

"Sigh." Not said out loud as she pulled up to her locker and lifted up on the latch to pull it open.

"Why are you so glum Nora? Was Ports class really that boring?" Ren asks as he walks up to his own locker which is only a few feet away.

"No it's not that, I just don't know what to do with myself anymore." Nora responds.

"What do you mean by that? The year just started you can't tell me you're already tiered of school." Ren pressed while placing several school books in his locker and pulling out several novels.

"It's not just school Ren. I just feel like I am going to explode you know what I mean?!" She responded but Ren gave her a look that said he didn't know so she went on. "Look I have all this pent up energy inside of me that I need to release every now and then or I will explode but how?! I use to just run it off but, well that's not really an option anymore." Nora explains as she shoots another hateful glace at her chair. "And if that was not bad enough even ROR has lost a bit of its appeal as of late."

This statement caused Ren's eyebrow to shoot up. "ROR has? Wait wert you all pumped up about the upcoming expansion just a few weeks ago? Is this because a few of your guild members quit?" Ren inquires.

"Do not speak of those traitors or your queen will have you beheaded!" Nora shouts warranting a light chuckle from Ren. Nora just lets out a huff before continuing. "With that said you're not far off the mark. It has been rather hard to find suitable replacements for the four who shall not be named. My guild may be legendary but I have always tried to keep it small, it's just more comfortable that way you know?"

Ren nods in agreement. "Yeah I know what you mean. Come to think of it, don't you know most of your guild members personally?" Ren inquires.

Nora nods and begins to count her fingers. "Yeah, let's see there's me, Blake, Yang, Yang's little sister, Pyrrha, and until recently there was the four who shall not be named. About the only members I don't know personally are Jade, The Monkey King, and Snow Angel."

"Oh I see quite picky then aren't you? So how did those three make the cut?" Ren asks.

"Well Jade is kind of hard to explain. We started playing around the same time and we just kept running into her. At some point we just kind of found ourselves partying up all the time. She is a bit of an odd ball though. She never uses voice chat and only ever goes raiding when we are short a party member but. She always does quite well so it's never bothered me." Nora explains.

A smile comes to Ren's face before responding. "She does sound interesting, and what of the other two?" He asks.

"Oh apparently they are both friends with Blake. I don't really hangout with Blake very much. She is kind of like that friend you only ever see when you're with another friend you know what I mean?" Nora says while making a strange hand motion that kind of reminds Ren of box stacking.

Ren gives Nora a slightly strange look before he answers her. "Well there's always time to get to know her better. I think the two of you could get along great on your own. As a matter of fact I'm about to go to Literature Club right now to greet the new members. Being the president of the club I'm sure she will be there, so if you have nothing better to do want to come along?" He asks.

Nora shakes her head violently. "No thank you. If I wanted to sit around reading for an extra hour after school I would just get detention."

Ren just rolled his eyes. "So have you spoken to Pyrrha lately?" He asks.

"Well not for a few days. Last time I heard from her Pyrrha said she would try to recruit some new members. Hopefully she managed to find a few competent players." Nora answered before looking off like she was deep in thought. "I guess I will go see how she did. I am still technically a member of the track team so I suppose I should show my face every now and then."

Ren nods. "Sounds good, though didn't you say you were going to quit the track team?" He asks.

Nora leans forward in her chair and drops her face into the palm of her hands. "Yeah, I just couldn't tell Pyrrha that I wanted to quit. Anyway I guess I will get going. Have fun at your Literature Club, ugh that sounds so weird to say out loud." Ren just smiles and wave's goodbye as they split up and head in different directions.

////////////////////////////////////////////////

**Beacon Academy Outdoor Running Track**

Pyrrha stands in front of an attentive group of young girls wearing her school track suit. She seems to be explaining what it is the track team does like how often and for how long they normally train as well as what events they normally take part in. "So is there any questions so far?"

None of the younger girls responded but another voice called out to the red headed captain from behind her. "Yeah I have one!" Pyrrha's quickly spun around to see that her friend Yang Xiao Long was walking up to her dressed in a sleeveless top and mini-skirt in her school's colors and she was waving around a set of bright yellow palm palms. "So how do I look?!" Yang asks while stopping in front of Pyrrha and striking a pose.

A confused expression quickly comes over Pyrrha's face as she stares at her friend's appearance. "You look like a cheer leader. Did you join the cheer squad?"

Yang puts on a wide grin before breaking into a spirited cheer. "Give me a Y! Give me an E! Give me an S! What does that spell!? Yes! Yes! Yes!"

Pyrrha instantly face palms and for a moment she was literally at a complete loss as to what words to say. When she finally broke out of her stunned stupor she took on a dry tone. "And what happened to the soccer team?"

"Nothing I'm still a member, I can multitask you know!" Yang retorted while crossing her arms.

"And the basket ball team?" Pyrrha retorted.

"I'm still a member of that too!" Yang says with a shrug.

Pyrrha lets out a long sigh. "It's every year with this. You have the shortest attention span I have ever seen. You know you're causing everyone one trouble by jumping back and forth like this?"

"What's the problem? A girl likes to have her options Pyrrha!" Yang said defensively before a wide smirk came across her face. "Or maybe you're just jealous that I haven't felt the urge to join your track?" She said in a joking manner.

Pyrrha let out a playful scuff. "Hardly Yang, we would rather have members who are able to commit. With all joking aside I heard your little sister got accepted. She's fairly quick on her feet right? Think she might be interested in joining?" She asks.

Yang shrugs and shakes her head. "No I doubt it. Ruby may be filled with explosive amounts of energy but she's a total gear head. I would wager that the Mechanical Engineering Club has already snagged her."

"That's too bad we would have loved to have her." Pyrrha said in a slightly disappointed tone. "Hmm speaking of which, did you see my Facebook post about the guild meeting tonight and if so are the both of you coming?" Pyrrha inquired.

"Yeah I did see that and I already let most of the others know as well. Ruby on the other hand well she and I don't have to share my VR headset anymore. Dad went out and got Ruby her own as a present for being accepted to Beacon." Yang stated with another wide grin.

"Oh that's great!" Pyrrha cheered.

"Umm captain Pyrrha." One of the younger girls called out.

Pyrrha turned away from Yang to face the girl. "I'm terribly sorry about this you guys! I got a little distracted there." She apologized. "Is there anything I can do for you?"

"I'm just wondering, who is that girl?" She said pointing to another girl who was now wheeling herself towards the group.

Pyrrha's eyes lit up in excitement. "Nora! Finally decided to come to practice did you!?" She says as she runs up and pulls the other red head into a hug.

Nora chuckles as she tries to fight herself free from the Amazon's grasp before glancing over to see Yang snickering to herself. Nora tilted her head and gave Yang a confused look when she noticed the Cheer Squad uniform she was wearing but quickly just filed it away as Yang being Yang. "Don't get too excited I just wanted to talk to you about something." She explains.

Pyrrha's expression fell slightly due to Nora's response but quickly returned to cheerful status. Likely just happy to see Nora go near the track. Quickly Pyrrha ran around the back of Nora's chair and pushed her forward to face the group of new students. "Everyone this is Nora Valkyrie she is our clubs official activity manager. If you need to know what events we have coming up, where you can find any of the equipment, or even just need some advice feel free to ask her." Pyrrha explained causing Nora to shoot her a less than pleased glance. "Anyway," Pyrrha began as she spun Nora around to face Yang. "We were just discussing the guild meeting we're having tonight. You will be there right?" She asks Nora.

Nora groans before rubbing the back of her neck. "I don't know guys. It's kind of been a long day for me. I was thinking about just having some pancakes and becoming a sloth when I got home tonight."

"Come now don't be so gloomy. You're starting to sound like Blake. Besides you have to be there!" Yang heckled.

"I am not being gloomy! And why do I have to be there?!" Nora asked.

"That's because we're getting a new member today of course!" Pyrrha cut in with a cheerful tone causing Nora's attention to perk.

"You found somebody?!" Nora asked while turning to stare at Pyrrha intently. Pyrrha quickly gave an affirmative nod. "Yeah, Pyrrha you're the best!" She cheered as she pushed herself up out of her chair to latch herself onto Pyrrha's neck.

Their little moment lasted for a few more seconds until Yang asked a rather pressing question. "Is he any good?"

Both Nora and Pyrrha's eyes snapped wide in response and after a moment of silence Nora's became laser focused on Pyrrha. Noticing the stare Pyrrha quickly snapped herself out of her stupor. "Let just say he has a lot of promise." She responded in what she hoped was a confidant tone.

After another moment of awkward silence Nora's smile returns and she allows herself to plop back into her chair. "Well if Pyrrha says he's good then he will do just fine." She then turned her chair around and began to wheel herself away. "See you guys at the meeting tonight!"

////////////////////////////////////////////////

**Later That Night Pyrrha's House**

Pyrrha glances at her bedroom clock for what seems like the thousandth time that day. And noticing that it was almost time for her to meet up with Jaune of the Ark as she found out was Joan's real account's character name. She set down the book she was reading, booted up her pc, and strapped on her VR gear. All that was left was to type in her log in information and click the enter button.

***Pyrrha the Gladiator Logged On***


	4. ROR Part 4: Roles and Players

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pyrrha prepares Jaune to meet his new guildmates.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anther chapter down woot. I have been on a rule lately. Though this chapter is slightly on the shorter side. Anyway I hope everyone can continue to give me your support and or feedback.

***Jaune of the Ark Logged On***

Jaune had just arrived in ROR and even though he was ten minutes early, he was still fearful that he might make his new friend/trainer and fellow guild members wait. His mother used to always tell him that a man must always be on time if he wanted to make a good impression. So the moment he logged in he made a beeline for the place that him and Troy, or rather Pyrrha, had agreed to meet at. Once there he quickly popped up his friends list to see if she was on yet. Her name was grayed out so it would seem that she had not yet logged on. "Hmm looks like she's not here yet. I am early after all." He said to himself. After that he just continued to stare intently at his friends list waiting for any notifications to come in.

After a few minutes without any updates Jaune begun to get worried he may have made a mistake while adding her to his friends list so he flipped up the visor to his helmet and looked down at his desk to see the note he had written for himself. He quickly cross-referenced the note against the name he had added to his friends list. They both read the same way, Pyrrha the Gladiator. "No it doesn't look like it was a mistake. I guess I just worry too much. Pyrrha the Gladiator, why is it that her name sounds so familiar?" Jaune takes a moment to lift up his visor once again so he can open up a new internet tab on his computer and bring up Google. He quickly types Realm into the search bar and was pleased when the first auto complete to appear was Realm of Remnant. Then he began to type out her user name figuring he might find a link to her high scores page somewhere but. Much to his surprise before he even got half way through her name it also popped up as an auto complete. Now with his curiosity now peaked, he quickly clicked the auto complete and hit the search button. A moment later and large list of results appeared before him with the one at the top being a link to a Youtube video entitled ROR PVP world championships.

Jaune wanted to see what this was about but before he could get the chance he heard a familiar sound chime in his headset. It was the sound it makes when you get a log in notification so he quickly lid his visor back on and looked down at his friends list.

***Pyrrha the Gladiator Logged On***

When Jaune saw this message he quickly began to look around for any signs of his friend/trainer. Though he wasn't completely sure what she looked like. All he knew for sure was that she had a female character named Pyrrha the Gladiator. Then he remembered that people on your friends list show up as green dots on his mini-map so he opened it up and noticed a single green dot directly behind him. "What are you up to Jaune?" A clearly female voice called out from behind him causing him to jump and nearly knock his computer desk over.

Jaune then spun around to see a tall red haired girl in heavy gilded armor. The girl was clearly fighting to stifle a laugh and finding little success in that area. Then he looked up at the girls display and sure enough it read out Pyrrha the Gladiator, Level 30 Warrior/Guardian. "Pyrrha, I didn't know you were a Guardian. I am too!" Jaune said excitedly.

Pyrrha cocked her head to the side in confusion for a moment. Almost as if she was expecting a slightly different reaction but quickly broke out of it and almost seemed delighted when she did. "Yeah, so I see." She responded glancing over Jaune's character. Jaune of the Ark, Level 12 Warrior/Guardian. He was honestly a higher level than she thought he would be. You don't get a subclass until level ten but she figured he would be aiming to become a Guardian if he was interested in that heavy soul shield. Speaking of which after a quick gear check it seemed that he had been training. The soul shield was at level 1 when he got it but it had already caught up to him. Which was a good thing, soul weapons were usually not top tier equipment by any means but they were above average and wouldn't be worth swapping out for awhile. The rest of his gear however left something to be desired. It was a real mismatch of levels, rarities, and types. His best piece of equipment was a set of cloth boots that granted a decent intellect bonus. For a Mage at his level they would have been a fine piece of equipment but for a Warrior who needs to be able to tank blows and dish out physical damage it just didn't do him much good. Luckily she accounted for this. "Hey Jaune, do you mind coming with me to the bank real quick before we head to the guild meeting?"

Jaune shrugged his shoulders. "I don't see that being a problem, it's nearby anyway." He responded.

Pyrrha smiles as she leads him down the streets of Vale towards their destination. Along the way he sees a rather strange sight which stops him in his tracks. "Hey Pyrrha, what are those people over there doing?" He asks as he points her in the direction of a group of people dressed in strange gear combination slashing at each other and calling out he was sure weren't part of this game.

"Ah, those people are all role-players." She responded.

Jaune gave her a confused expression. "Wait, aren't we all role-players?" He asked.

"Well in a sence but, they play the game in a very differently from us. What I mean is that we go through the game experiencing the adventure that the developer's layout for us. And though we may each have our own unique experience during said adventure, the rules of it were decided by somebody else. Role-players on the other hand bypass this by simply using the game as a tool to create their own adventure." Pyrrha explained.

Jaune nodded in understanding. "So are there a lot of role-players in ROR?" He asked.

Pyrrha paused for a moment unsure of how to respond. "Hmm, well I guess its relative. There are thousands of active role-players in ROR but they make up a rather small portion of its population. This is why they form their own guilds so that they're able to easily find other players to role-play with. The two largest role-playing guilds I know of are Soul Bleachers and The White Fang. The Soul Bleachers mainly focus on non-ROR themes such as anime, were as The White Fang focuses on in game lore."

"Wow you sure know a lot Pyrrha." Jaune praises.

"Hmm, I wouldn't really say that. Rather than saying I know a lot, it might be more accurate to say I know too much about this game." Pyrrha says jokingly.

Satisfied with Pyrrha's response Jaune remained silent until the two of them finally reached the bank. The bank was a large building made of what appeared to be some combination of marble and granite. The streets surrounding the bank were by far the most crowded in the already overpopulated city. You wouldn't be able to take two steps without bumping into another player if most of them didn't have player collision turned off. Because of this and the fact that Jaune didn't have much to store or take out to begin with he didn't care to visit the bank often, especially during prime hours such as these.

When Jaune and Pyrrha began to ascend the small flight of stairs that lead to the bank's entrance, Jaune took a brief moment to breathe in the madness around him and look over the crowd. "It really is crazy time of day huh Pyrrha?"

Pyrrha shares a small smile with him. "Indeed it is. I often wonder how many of these people even are real players."

Pyrrha's statement puts a confused look on Jaune's face. "What do you mean by real players?" He asked.

Pyrrha chuckles slightly before motioning towards the mass of the crowd. "Look closely Jaune, does anything seem slightly off to you about some of these players?" She asks him.

Doing just as he was instructed he looks out over the crowd and begins checking their displays. Indeed he did notice some abnormalities. Most of the players running to and from were either over level 20 or below level 10. There was very few in the middle ground. Another thing he noticed was that many of the lower level players were part of a guild. The guilds varied but only a handful of names came up often. "Alright, now that you mention it, there is something weird here, but I don't really know what I'm looking for." He told Pyrrha.

Pyrrha nodded in understanding before elaborating. "You see Jaune the reason for the high volume of low level characters in guilds is because of three major factors. Number one is what we call Bank Alts. As you know bank space is limited for every character and most players don't want to keep running back to town to manage their items. So they create Bank Alts much like the character you saw me use the other day. These characters are normally kept in town and used to store and manage items for the flag ship character. And since they aren't intended for anything else their level isn't really important. And since these characters are effectively one character the alternate characters tend to get grandfathered into the same guild as their owner."

"Oh yes, I think I understand. So, what are the other two?" Jaune inquired.

"The second is due to Merchant Guilds. There are many players who enjoy the game more by simply buying low and selling high. And there are many guilds dedicated to these players. They operate much like a business you could say. And since they don't focus on Raiding or Player vs. Player activities, they don't really care what your level is." Pyrrha stated while motioning to a few note worthy Merchant Guild members in the crowd.

"Hmm interesting, and what's the last one?" Jaune asked.

"Ah yes the last one." Pyrrha let out a sigh and took a deep breathe as if preparing herself for the coming explanation. "The last one is what we call bots."

"Bots, you mean like robots?" Jaune asked with confusion clear in his voice.

"Yes basically. Bots are third party AI programs created to farm items and/or gold and perform other minor tasks automatically. They're often used by lazy players who can't bring themselves to put the time in and organizations that makes money by selling gold and/or items to players for real money." Pyrrha explained in an irritated tone.

For a moment Jaune looks dumbfounded. "Wait, people do that?! Isn't that against the rules or something?!"

Pyrrha lets out another sigh before responding. "Yes, it's in breach of the user agreement to use such third party software since it could give you an unfair advantage. And of course the gold and items we have are considered to be the property of the developers and as such the buying and selling of them for real money is considered stealing. Unfortunately there will always be those willing to use them for their promise of easy money and as the anti-botting software evolves so does the botting software. It's just not an easy problem to fix." She explained.

"Wow, learn something new each day." Jaune says to himself.

"Indeed." Pyrrha said while giving Jaune another smile. Then a private message notification popped up on Pyrrha's screen. "Huh, what do we have here?" She said to herself as she opened up the message. "Oh, it's from Nora!"

**Private Message From Violet Valkyrie:** "Hey Pyrrha where the heck are you?! Everyone else has already gotten here and you're bringing the star of the show right?! Anyway you better hurry up, I only have a few dozen raiding stories left!"

The message incites a light chuckle from Pyrrha before she checks the time on her screen. "Oh my, we better getting moving Jaune! We're running late!" She stated as she quickly pulls him into the bank with her.

Moments later and they're walking down the street together heading towards the meeting spot. While walking along with Pyrrha, Jaune is glancing over his new set of level accurate plate armor that she gave him with a guilty look in his eyes. "Is it really ok for me to have this stuff?" He asks.

Pyrrha happily nods in agreement. "Of course it is. That stuff has just been sitting around catching pixilated dust after all." She says jokingly as they step in front of an alleyway. "Come on, this way Jaune." She says as she waves Jaune along down the narrow passage.

"Are we just cutting through here?" He asks curiously.

Pyrrha shakes her head. "No, this is where we will be meeting with our guildmates." She tells him.

"Huh, but the guild halls are no where near here." He states clearly confused by this turn of events.

"Oh, I didn't tell you?" Pyrrha asks causing Jaune to shrug his shoulders. "Our guild doesn't use the guild halls for our meetings. We have a very special place." She explains.

"And this very special place is in the middle of a narrow dark alleyway behind the market district? This place sounds amazing." He asks her with a slight air of sarcasm.

Pyrrha just shook her head as the continued down the tight passage. The alleyway was on the edge of the district and seemed to weave around the back of just about every shop. There didn't seem to be any other way in or out than the one they had used. After a few minutes of weaving around they found themselves at a dead end surrounded by the unfinished textures of the shops backsides and a single mail box. "Here we are." Pyrrha announced cheerfully.

"I'm sorry is this some kind of joke? You're not going to tell me they are all inside the mailbox right?" Jaune asked while lairing on more sarcasm.

Pyrrha rolled her eyes as she approached the mailbox. "No, it wouldn't be quite right to say that they're in the mailbox but, doesn't it seem kind of odd for a mailbox to be back here?" She asked Jaune.

Jaune had to think about for a moment. Certainly it didn't make much sence. Mailboxes were used to send gold and items between players so they were normally placed in convenient locations, like outside of banks and taverns. This place was so far out of the way that no player in their right mind would come here to use it. And the unfinished textures on the buildings around them told him that this wasn't a place they expected to many players to ever see. "Alright, you got me on that one. So what's the deal with this mailbox?" He asks.

Pyrrha gave him a very wide smile as she stepped up to the mailbox and lifted up the red flag arm on the side that in the real world was normally used to indicate that there was mail inside. When she did a panel on the side of the mailbox opened up to reveal a keypad and she quickly typed in a five digit code and pushed the flag back down. Then a click was heard and the wall next to the mailbox seemed to fold inward and open up revealing a staircase leading downward. "After you good sir." She said while motioning towards the stair case.

Jaune was dumbstruck. "What, how, why?"

"What, haven't you ever heard of an Easter Egg before?" She says jokingly as she walks around him and begins to lead him down the steps. Once they are both inside the entrance closes up behind him.

At the bottom of the stairs they were faced with a long hallway leading to a set of double doors with a sign hanging above it witch said Penny's Place in bold letters. Along the walls of the hallway were many pictures of who Jaune assumed to be the developers along with many removed or unreleased weapons and armor. "This place is amazing! How did you find it? And of that matter how did you know how to get in?!" He asked with an air of excitement that contrasted greatly with his earlier behavior.

"I didn't really have anything to do with it. It was my guild leader and her raid group that figured it out. Apparently underneath of the Dragon King's throne there was a letter. You couldn't open the letter to inspect its contents but it had a mailing address. That address led them to that mailbox up above. When they put the letter inside the mailbox it was released by a note that listed the code to open the door." Pyrrha explained.

"That's so cool!" Jaune cheered.

"Yeah it is pretty cool. It's too bad we can't share it with everyone though. I mean if we did we would lose our special place to hang out. So we have kept it to ourselves." Pyrrha says as the reach the set of double doors. And when Pyrrha reaches out to open them she pauses. "Which that reminds me, there's one thing I forgot to tell you Jaune."

"Oh, what's that?" Jaune inquires as he tilts his head to the side.

Pyrrha starts to scratch the back of her neck nervously. "I kind of told our guildmates that you were a power leveler. So if anyone asks, you have a lot of higher level characters and that you just started this one a week ago is that alright?"

Jaune freezes for a moment. "Come again?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes I know this chapter was a little low on the Nora factor I will do what I can to make up for it next time.


	5. ROR Part 5: The Violet Crusaders

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Its time for Jaune to meet his guildmates. Will he make it through introductions in one piece?

"You told them what!?" Jaune asked in a panicked shout.

Pyrrha looked confused for a moment as if she didn't understand his question. "I'm sorry did you not hear me properly? My apologies, I told our fellow guild members that you're a power leveler."

Jaune instantly face palmed and dragged his hand across his face until it reached his chin. "That is not quite what I meant. Look what I want to know is why you told them that?! You know I'm not a power leveler right? Or at least I don't think I am since I don't even know what a power leveler is."

"Oh, allow me to explain then." Pyrrha responded happily. Jaune couldn't help but get the feeling that Pyrrha just enjoyed explaining things. Pyrrha cleared her throat before beginning. "A Power Leveler is kind of like the MMO equivalent of a Speed Runner. Speed Runners are players who enjoy a challenge and usually try to reach the end of games in the quickest and most efficient way possible. Power Levelers on the other hand use the same basic principle for leveling their characters. There are many different reasons for why Power Levelers do this. For some they just like having options to choose from when playing so they want all if not most of their classes to be on par with one another. Some do it simply because they enjoy leveling the characters more than they enjoy the end game, which is a bit of a rarity but they exist. And finally there are a few that try to make profit by leveling up low level characters and selling them off to other players who don't enjoy the leveling process. Mind you that this action just like using a botting program is against the rules of the game." Pyrrha then paused for a moment to allow what she had just said sink in. "So does that explain everything?"

Jaune gave her an incredulous look. "No it doesn't explain everything! What I wanted to know is why you told them that I'm something I'm not!"

Pyrrha's calm and composed expression seemed to crack slightly as nervousness began to set in. "Well it's kind of a long story. Umm where to begin I wonder." She said while scratching her chin, which by the way was a completely pointless action. Though their Avatars were programmed with basic nerve endings and were able to transmit sensations to their user. They were not programmed to become itchy.

At this point Jaune looked quite annoyed. "Well the beginning is usually the way to go." He huffed.

Pyrrha let out a long sigh and gave Jaune a nod of agreement before beginning again. "Well here's the thing. Our guild, as in the Scarlet Crusaders is a raiding guild. And not to toot our own horn but we're quite well renowned for our achievements. However our guild leader thinks of this guild as her extended family and as such doesn't wish to just let anyone join. Because of this the guild has remained a rather small one since its creation. And that worked just fine until more recently when we lost four of our best raiders. They were here since the guild was founded and they just up and left without warning and barely a goodbye. Because of the 'Four who shall not be named' as our leader would call them, it's become quite difficult to get a proper party together, next to impossible really. That's why I was out in the market district the other day. I was scouting, looking for any potential recruits. When I seen you being hassled I figured it would be a good opportunity. However I quickly realized that you were not well versed enough in the game for our leader to accept. Despite our desperate situation she's still quite picky after all. So I figured I would just continue my search elsewhere." She explained.

"Wait so if you didn't think she would let me in why did you change your mind? Why am I here?" Jaune cut in.

Pyrrha gave Jaune a small smile. "Well that's because you asked me to train you right? The problem most new players have is they either don't have somebody to guide them or they don't want to be told how to play. When you asked me to train you it gave me an idea. You may not be well versed at the game now but, if I train you then you could be come a great asset to the guild in no time. I really do think that you have potential and it would be a waste if we even try right? The only issue was that I wasn't sure if I could convince our leader of my plans and even if I did I wouldn't want the other guild members treating you any differently because you were a noob. So I decided to tell them you were a Power Leveler in order to explain your low level character."

Jaune nodded in understanding. "Well that is all very interesting but, there's just one problem. I'm not a Power Leveler! Won't they figure out that something's a miss in a few weeks when my level isn't up to snuff?"

Pyrrha gave him a slightly wicked grin in response. "Oh, no need to worry about that, when I'm done training you they won't be able to tell the difference." Jaune let out an audible gulping sound as Pyrrha turned back towards the door with the sign reading Penny's Place above it. "Now then how about we introduce you?" She said happily before gripping the handles and pushing the doors open.

Jaunes eyes widen as he takes in the new space that had just been opened to him. The room was very large and was lined with wide wooden tables that were flanked on all sides by wooden chairs. At the back of the room was something akin to a bar with several stools lined up in front of it. And much like the hallway the room was decorated with developer photos, concept art, and unused item models. "Is this a tavern!?" Jaune asked in amazement.

"That's right Jaune, pretty cool right?" She responded.

Before Jaune could respond he heard a high pitched squeal come from the other side of the room. When he looked over to see its source he spotted a red haired girl in pink armor running toward them at full speed. "Pyrrha!" The red haired girl shouted before she kicked herself up off the ground towards Pyrrha. While in the air she stretched out her arms to perform hug tackle on the bronzed gladiator.

Pyrrha reflexively opened up her own arms to receive the smaller girl but the pink armored girl slipped right through Pyrrha's form causing her face plant and skid across the floor behind her until she came to a stop out in the hallway. Jaune knew full well that the girl wouldn't really be hurt but he couldn't help but wince at the sight of her face gliding across the floor. The girl popped up her head and turned around to give Pyrrha pouty face. "Pyrrha, how could you reject my loving embrace?"

Pyrrha quickly began to bow her head in apology. "I'm so sorry Nora, we were in the busy districts today and I forgot to turn player collision back on." Pyrrha quickly flicked her wrist causing her menu interface to appear in front of her. She quickly scrolled down to options and went in to display a long list items. She went down to one called 'Player Collision' and clicked it to get a warning message. The message read as follows. 'WARNING Enabling Player Collision will allow other players to touch and interact with your player character directly even while in safe zones. Are you sure you want to Enable Player Collision. She moved her finger over the yes button and clicked it before exiting the menu. "There now we should be…" Before Pyrrha could finish Nora had jumped up from the ground and pulled her into a tight hug even lifting the larger girl off the floor momentarily.

"Ah that's better." Nora said happy after finally setting the gladiator back down. "So is this the guy?" Nora asked while motioning to Jaune.

Pyrrha nodded. "Oh yes this is Jaune of the Ark. He says you can just call him Jaune." Pyrrha introduced and Jaune nodded in agreement.

Almost instantly Nora completely moved her focus to Jaune and descended upon him. She was jumping back and forth inspecting nearly every inch of his character and only taking a moment to glance at his display. While doing so she looked back at Pyrrha to address her. "And you said that he has only had this character for a week?" She asked causing Pyrrha to nod. "Oh, and is that true?" Nora asked now directed at Jaune.

Jaune gave a panicked glance at Pyrrha who tried to give him subtle signals with her eyes. Which was hard to pull off due to the software limitations of the face recognition program built into the head sets. They just weren't very good at picking up such subtle moments. Regardless of that though, Jaune seen no other way to move forward at this point and just stuck with Pyrrha's story. "Yes that's right. This is my newest character."

"Oh not bad, and what other characters do you have available? You know just for future reference?" Nora asked in a serious tone.

Jaune gave another glance to Pyrrha who seemed to have locked up. He could only guess that she hadn't thought that such a question would come up. Jaune however was ready for this one. "I have a level 30 Warrior/Swordmaster, A level 30 Mage/Cleric, and a Level 30 Assassin/Ninja." Jaune was listing off his sisters characters, he figured that if worse came to worse he could always just beg them for their help.

Once Jaune had finished, Nora's eyes lit up with excitement. "You have a cleric?! We could really use one of those. We're rather low on the healer front at the moment. About the only people we have that are any good right are Snow Angel and The Monkey King but Snow Angel really hates doing it and Monks aren't the best healers. Anyway welcome to the guild! Let me introduce you to everyone!" Nora declared cheerfully before grabbing hold of Jaune's hand and dragging him into the center of the room.

Once Nora released Jaune's hand, he now found himself face to face with a large group of adventures in what looked the be the most epic gear he had ever seen. It was all Jaune could do to keep himself from gaping at them, and that is when Nora cleared her throat to get their attention. "Aright guys it's time to get started with introduction! The only question is where to start? Hmm, well you already know Pyrrha and as I'm sure your know by now, my name is Violet Valkyrie but you can just call me Nora." Nora said while she motioned to the gladiator and then herself. "Pyrrha and I kind of run things around here you know. So if you have any questions feel free to ask one of us.

Pyrrha and Jaune shared a nod before Jaune responded with. "Will do ma'am."

"Don't call me ma'am you will make me feel old!" Nora said with a laugh and playful punch in the arm that nearly knocked Jaune over. "Sorry ma'" Jaune began before remembering what he was just told and corrected himself. "Nora." Nora then gave both Jaune and Pyrrha a bright smile. "Good, now as for everyone else let's see. This one is Little Red" She said while motioning to a small girl in black armor with a red cloak. The display read as the following. Little Red, Level 30 Gunslinger/Marksmen. "You can just call her Ruby if you like. The girl next to her is her big sister Yang." She said while motion to a yellow clad warrior beside the smaller gunslinger. The display read as. The Yellow Dragon, Level 30 Warrior/Beserker. Jaune and the two sisters shared a quick greeting before moving on.

Nora then motioned to another pair of girls one clad in black armor and other in white. "This one is Black Cat and she's Snow Angel." Black cat was a level 30 Assassin/Ninja while Snow Angel was a level 30 Mage/Summer. Jaune couldn't help but notice that unlike most of the players around him Snow Angel had her helmet on obscuring her face. It was strange since there is an option in the menu to automatically hide your helmet while in safe zones. It was poplar since it made things seemed more personal between the players. Despite the fact that Jaune knew full well that the girls real face wasn't under that helmet, he found himself wanting to take a peek inside.

"Its nice to meet you, and you can just call me Blake." Black Cat declared.

"Likewise," Jaune responded before turning his attention back to Snow Angel. "And do you have a name Snow Angel?"

The white clad mage looked up at the blond warrior and tilted her head to the side. The girl couldn't tell why but it felt strange when he used her character name but had no interest in sharing her real one. "Snow Angel is fine."

"I see." Jaune said in a slightly disappointed tone.

"Alright who's next!?" Nora said as she glanced over the room and stopped on the only male character in the room. "This is The Monkey King he is Black Cats boyfriend or at least something like that."

The Monkey King was a tall blond character with white robes. He was a Level 30 Warrior/Monk. From what Jaune has heard Monks were currently a rather unpopular class since they were so hard to use effectively. However they were the only Warrior Class able to heal other players which meant they had their uses. The Monkey King reached out his hand to shake Jaunes and he quickly accepted. "Hey welcome to the guild. You're going to love it here, these guys are awesome!" He declared.

"Thanks I hope so." Jaune agreed.

"Cool we're almost there!" Nora cheered as she pointed Jaune towards the last member. It was a black haired girl in a long green eastern style dress. He display read as the following. The Jade Lotus, Level 30 Assassin/Trickster. "I hope you two get along she has been a member since I founded this guild." Nora stated.

"Umm hello, I'm Jaune. But I guess you would know that by now huh?" Jaune said nervously while he extended his hand to shake Jades. Jade said nothing and extended her hand to shake his.

Then a friend request from Jade popped up in Jaune's menu. He gave the girl a quick glance and it didn't even look like she was in her friends menu. He quickly accepted the request anyway. The moment he did a private message popped up.

 **Private Message From The Jade Lotus:** "It is a pleasure to meet you Jaune and I do hope we all can become good friends. If we can't do it then Nora will be hurt, I wouldn't want that. So a word of warning, don't hurt Nora. I would hate to have to hunt you down if you hurt her."

Jaunes eyes widened as he read over the message and his eyes shot up to Jade who was wearing a completely neutral expression. Then he glanced back at the other guild members who were all with the expressions of Nora wearing knowing expressions. "Wow your friends with Jade already!? Good work Jaune!" Nora cheered before moving over to Jades side and placing a hand on her shoulder. "Well it's not really surprising. Jade refuses to use her microphone for some reason! She can be a bit stubborn some times but she is a good friend and a great Assassin!"

"I can tell." Jaune said in an uneasy tone. "So is that everyone?" He asked while looking around the tavern. There didn't seem to be anyone else sitting around.

"That's all of our guild members but there is still one more 'person' you should meet." Pyrrha stated before glancing over at guild leader. "Isn't that right Nora?"

Nora's eyes lit up once again. "That's right we still have her!" Nora declared before she grabbed onto Jaune's arm and pulled away from the group towards the bar at the back of the tavern. Jaune soon found himself face to face with yet another short red haired girl. Only this one was wearing no armor of any kind and had a large bow attached to the back of her head. The girls face was dotted with freckles. "Jaune allow me to introduce our honorary member Penny! If the big sign out front wasn't a big enough give away she runs the tavern here and is quite special to say the least."

"Honorary member, special?" Jaune mumbled in a confused tone as he inspected the girl behind the bar. Her display read as the following. Penny, Level ? NPC/Shopkeeper. No matter how Jaune looked at the girl was an NPC or None Player Character. Which meant she was AI controlled and weren't much for conversation. Not really somebody you would introduce to somebody. "Umm hello there, I'm Jaune." He decided to introduce himself anyway.

The freckled girl smiled widely and gave him a polite bow. "Hello Jaune, it's a pleasure to meet you!" She declared happily.

Jaune's eyes winded slightly at the mention of his name. That was certainly new. "Umm did you just say my name?" He asked.

The AI girl looked worried for a moment, also something unusual for an NPC. "Oh no did I miss pronounce it? I'm still having trouble with names but I will try to get better!"

"No it's not that I just wasn't expecting it! Are you really an NPC Penny?" Jaune asked.

"That's right." Penny agreed. "I am the prototype for the new AI program being released in the upcoming expansion 'The Third Crusade'.

"Wow that's amazing, your so life like. I can barely tell the difference." Jaune said as he began leaning over the counter to get a better look at Penny causing her face to turn red when he get in too close.

"Umm, life like? Ahh, so close!" Penny said nervously.

"Jaune stop your being rude!" Pyrrha declared as she grabbed him by the collar and yanked him back over the counter.

"Oh hey Pyrrha, wow this is so cool! I never thought I would live to see the day when AI programs would get this far you know! It really feels like we're in a sci-fi you know?" He ranted to Pyrrha and Nora. Then he refocused on Penny. "By the way you said you were the prototype are all the AI going to be like you after the expansion!?"

Penny shook her head. "My apologies, I don't really know. I have not been given very much information regarding the scale and scope of the expansion and even if I had, I wouldn't be allowed to share such sensitive information with you."

Jaune nodded in understanding. "That's alright, I was just curious anyway. I guess I will just have to wait and see like everyone else." Jaune stated before giving Penny a polite bow. "Anyway it was a pleasure to meet you Penny. I hope we will see more of each other in the future."

Penny gave him big smile. "Thank you Jaune, just let me know if you need anything from my wears. Or if you just want to talk, I love hearing stories about the human world."

After that Nora, Pyrrha, and the rest of his new guildmates threw Jaune a big welcoming party. Penny even served rare holiday food items on the house. Even though they did little to heal your character and did nothing to fill your real stomach, their taste was unlike anything you could ever experience from real life food. And while they enjoyed their digital treats Jaune's guildmates all shared stories about how they came to be in the guild or past adventures they had during their time in the guild. All of Jaune's guild mates were relatively fun and interesting people. And he was having a great time with them. At least he was until his guild leader brought it all down with a single question.

"So Jaune, you ready to raid tomorrow?!"


	6. ROR Part 6: Bears and Backstory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nora and Penny learn a little bit more about each other over tea while Pyrrha puts Jaune through his paces.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally another chapter and this one is a big one. Sorry about the long wait on not only this work but most of my works as of late. I have have been very busy with work related stuff and just haven't had much time. This chapter was fun to right though, I just love the personal stuff in this work. And stuff about MMO culture is also a lot of fun to write. I don't know how much you guys care for it though so if you could I would love to hear what you think. Do you think I should cut back on explaining MMO terms and mechanics a bit or do you like them?

“I’m screwed!” Jaune declared as he threw his hands up in the air and proceeded to slump over as he stepped out of alleyway that had lead to his guilds supposedly secret lair.

“Relax Jaune, I assure you that you will be just fine.” Pyrrha proclaimed as she followed Jaune out onto the main streets of the market place.

In response to Pyrrha’s words Jaune spun around in place and directed an accusing finger into her face. “And what makes you so sure of that huh!? Were you even at the same meeting as me!? Because if you were you would know that they want me to go raiding with them tomorrow! You do realize that I’ve never even been in a real raiding party before right!? Heck, I’ve never even been in a real dungeon before, so there’s no way I pull this off!”

“Sure you can Jaune, the Emerald Forest isn’t as bad as you think. It’s a fairly low level raid and the other guild members will still be there to help. They all know that dungeon like the back of their hand so it shouldn’t give us any trouble. And they are only doing this raid as a sort of initiation party for you.” Pyrrha explained in what she hoped was a reassuring tone.

Jaune retracted his hand and placed it on the bridge of his noose before letting out a groan. “And that’s what I’m worried about! If this is an initiation like you say it is, doesn’t that mean that they are going to be watching me, testing me? And when I blow it, they will realize that we lied about my experience level!”

“You’re not going to blow it Jaune. I already have a plan, you just got to trust me.” Pyrrha stated while reaching out to place her hands on Jaune’s shoulders to steady him. This caused Jaune to glance up and meet Pyrrha’s gaze and when he did he was met by her bright smile.

That smile left Jaune with only one option. He let out a sigh of defeat before responding. “And what might that plan be?”

Jaune’s question caused Pyrrha’s smile to widen to at least twice its size before twisting slightly into something almost sinister. “It’s simple Jaune. We’re just going to do what you asked me to do from the start. Since its experience that you are lacking, all we need to do is focus on fixing that correct?”

Jaune’s expression shifted to one of confusion as he considered Pyrrha’s words. “Yeah, I suppose so but how are we going to do that? Wait, so are you saying you’re going to train me?” He asked the red haired gladiator. Pyrrha simply nodded in agreement which caused the look of confusion on Jaune’s face to intensify. “But isn’t the raid tomorrow? How much could we possibly get done in such a short amount of time?” He asked.

“Oh, you’d be surprised Jaune. I mean after all, the day is still young. You may want to brew up some coffee and use the bathroom while you can though because we got a long night ahead of us and we have little time to waste.” She explained while letting out an ominous laugh.

“I don’t think I like this training idea anymore.” Jaune cried.

Ignoring Jaune’s words Pyrrha promptly grabbed him by arm and dragged him through the streets of the market district and then out towards the town gates. “Don’t worry Jaune I know the perfect place for us to start our first training session. I swear I will have you up to snuff in time for the raid!”

//////////////////////////////////////////////

Meanwhile back in Penny’s Place the guild meeting had long since ended and now Nora, Yang, and her sister Ruby were the only members who still remained. They were all seated at a small table in the corner of the tavern and Nora was leaned over the table chatting away with her comrades. “So, what did you guys think of the new guy?” She asked.

Yang shrugged her shoulders dismissively. “Meh, he liked my jokes so I guess he has that going for him but he didn’t really seem like he was anything special.”

“I thought he was nice. And if Pyrrha vouches for him I’m sure he will do fine.” Ruby added.

Nora leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest. She seemed to be considering her guildmates words. After a moment she finally responded. “Yeah he did seem like a nice enough guy and all but what’s important right now is if he can be of any use to us or not. The new expansion is right around the corner and we aren’t anywhere near ready for it. And there’s no way we’re losing our spot in the rankings because of a slow start! We have to be the first party to clear the new raids or die trying!”

“Do we really?! That means that we will be going into all of those raids blind! I don’t want to go through another wipe fest like when we were starting out. I can practically feel my wallet shrinking from the repair costs!” Yang complained.

“It does seem like it would be a bit of a hassle. Wouldn’t it be more enjoyable if we took our time and properly explored the new content instead of rushing headlong into the unknown without a plan?” Ruby inquired in a serious tone.

“Ugh, come on guys I thought you wanted to be the best! We’re the Violet Crusaders for crying out loud! Are you seriously telling me that you don’t want to be the first boots on the ground? That you want to let everybody else take all the glory that rightfully belongs to us while we’re left to feast on their scraps!? I say nay sisters!” Nora roared as she stud up on her chair and placed her foot on the table.

“Umm, Nora would you mind I just cleaned the tables?” Penny asked timidly from behind the counter a few feet away.

This caused Nora to sigh and deflate back into her seat. “Yeah sorry Penny, I got a little carried away again.” Penny just nodded in understanding and went back to work cleaning around the tavern. “Maybe this game is becoming too realistic.” Nora mumbled under her breath causing Yang and Ruby to chuckle.

“Oh, relax Nora. It’s not that I disagree with you or anything, I just feel like there’s a smarter way of going about this.” Yang reasoned.

Ruby scoffed. “And like you would know anything about being smart.” She said as she began to snicker.

Yang’s eyes widened before she turned to glare at her sister. “What’d you just say to your elder sister you cheeky little brat!?” She roared right before she jumped up out of her seat and pulled Ruby into a headlock.

Ruby let out a squeaking sound as she began to struggle to break free of her sister’s grip. Unfortunately as a Beserker class, Yang’s strength was far higher than Ruby’s making it so there was very little chance of her breaking free. However force wasn’t her only option. Thinking fast Ruby quickly flicked open her option menu with a free hand and clicked the option to deactivated player collision. No longer tangible, Ruby’s character slipped right through her sister’s hands and took a step away. “Ha, nice try sis but I think this proves my point. Brute force can’t be used to solve all of our problems and it would seem that, that’s all your good at.” Ruby reasoned.

Yang’s brow furrowed as she spoke. “Oh, you think you’re so smart don’t you!? We will just see about that!” She retorted right before her body suddenly went very still. Her character model seemed to go rigid and stiff while its face became as blank and expressionless as a statue. Nora instantly recognized the expression as the default expression used by all the character models when their user removes heir VR headset without logging out. A loud thumping sound came thundering out of her microphone soon after.

“Hey Yang are you still there? Hello!” Nora asked as she stepped closer and waved a hand in front of her face in an attempted to gain her attention. After getting no response she turned back to Ruby who was now looking slightly nervous. “Hey Ruby what’s up, where’d your sister go?”

“Umm, I don’t… What is that sound?!” Ruby was interrupted by the sound of loud foot falls coming from the hallway outside her room and she looked over and lifted her VR visor just in time to see the door to her door being thrown open. Yang was now standing in the threshold with her hands held out in front of her so she could crack knuckles. The sight of this caused Ruby’s heart to jump into her throat. “Oh, hey Yang, you know I was just kidding around right?” She asked while letting out a nervous laugh.

Yang just gave her soon to be ex-sister an ominous smile as she stepped into the room and kicked the door shut behind her. “Of course sis, you know I wouldn’t hold something like this against you. Now why don’t you come over here and give your big sister a hug?” She said as she continued to close in on her Ruby with out stretched arms.

Meanwhile Nora just watched on as Ruby began letting out a muffled screams and her character began flailing around wildly. If Nora didn’t know better, she would think that the small girl was trying to fend of some sort of raved beast. “Hey Ruby you ok!? Ruby!” Nora called out to the girl but her calls went unanswered. After a few more seconds of this Ruby’s character model also feel still and rigid just like her sister’s had moments ago.

Seeing this Nora let out an audible groan before returning to her seat and leaning over the table gripping her head in her hands. “Seriously what am I going to do with these two? Ever since their dad got deployed overseas they’ve constantly been at each others throats.” Nora thought allowed. She was then startled from her thoughts when a cup of hot looking tea was set down in front of her. “Huh what?” Nora sputtered while turning her head to see Penny standing beside her looking down at her with a warm smile.

“Sorry for startling you, you just looked like you could use something to help relax. I know it won’t offer you any nourishment but, I have heard that the taste and aroma of tea is usually enough to calm the nerves.” Penny explained.

“Thank you Penny.” Nora responded as she returned Penny’s smile. Then she hoisted the tea cup to her lips to take an experimental sip. “Hmm, this is good tea.” She stated before taking another sip and directing her gaze back to Penny. “This flavor, this is jasmine right? I’m surprised they’re able to simulate the taste so precisely.”

Penny nodded in agreement. “That’s correct Nora. You must know your teas fairly well to guess that after just one sip.”

Nora shook her head before taking another slightly longer sip. “I’m not much of a tea drinker but my,” Nora paused for a moment as if trying to decide what to say. “My brother Ren really loves the stuff and he has this annoying habit of forcing it on me whenever possible. He’s always saying stuff about how healthy or relaxing it is but most of the stuff he shoves at me is just hot leafy water, yuck. Maybe he’s just trying to make me kick my coffee addition.”

“He sounds like he cares about you.” Penny said happily

This statement caused Nora to groan before taking another long sip of her tea. “Yeah, I know he does.”  
Nora’s reaction caused a look of confusion to come over Penny’s face. “Forgive me if I am being too forward but, you don’t sound happy about this. You don’t dislike your brother do you?” she asked sheepishly.

Nora shook her head. “No way, Ren’s the best brother a girl could ask for. Its just, well a girl needs her space sometimes you know what I mean?”

Penny thought about Nora’s question for a moment but didn’t seem to understand. “I’m sorry Nora, I don’t think I do know. Can you explain further?” She inquired.

Nora groaned even louder before responding. “Well it’s just that Ren is always acting like I’m a helpless little girl despite the fact that we’re the same age. It can just be a bit annoying sometimes. With how he’s always doing unnecessary things like pushing my chair around, carrying my school books, making all my meals. I swear that guy would help me go to the bathroom if I let him. And yet he never wants to do anything fun together. No matter how much I try I can’t even get him to make an ROR account!”

“I’m sorry, what’s a bathroom? I’m unfamiliar with this term.” Penny asked curiously.

Nora went red for a second before quickly flailing her arms around dismissively. “It’s nothing important just a room us humans have to use from time to time, usually in private.”

“Ah, I see. By the way may I ask you another question Nora?” Penny asked.

“Shoot.” Nora responded.

Penny tilted her head and gave Nora a confused look before speaking. “Shoot? Shoot what? I don’t want to shoot anything.”

“Oh, sorry I forgot you’re still not good with slang terms. When I said shoot, I actually meant that you could go ahead. Remember you’re still a member of this guild and I will always be willing to answer any questions you might have.” Nora explained.

“Thank you very much guild master!” Penny cheered causing Nora to smile. “I was just curious about another term you used earlier. You said Ruby and Yang’s father was deployed. What does it mean to be deployed?”

This question caught Nora a little off guard. She wasn’t quite sure if she should answer it since it was a bit of a private matter. However she figured it couldn’t hurt anything to tell Penny, she is a good kid after all. “Umm, well do you know what the military is?” Nora inquired.

Penny nodded her head. “Yes I am quite familiar with the term. A military is the official armed forces of a country.”

“Good, that makes things a bit easier. Deployment is what happens when a military sends their forces out to protect the country. Right now Yang and Ruby’s father isn’t around, and this is because he’s out fighting to defend us.” Nora explained.

“Oh, so Yang and Ruby’s father is like a knight! They must be very proud.” Penny exclaimed.

Nora shrugged her shoulders before downing the rest of her tea and continuing. “Yeah I guess that’s about right. And I’m sure they are quite proud of their father, heck Ruby wants to be just like him when she grows up. However with them being left all alone at home, I kind of feel bad for them.” Nora said the last line quite solemnly.

Nora’s sad tone caused Penny’s expression to sink as well. “Wait they’re alone? Correct me if I am wrong but aren’t human families made up of two parents? What about their mother?”

This question caused Nora to cringe slightly before she glanced back at her other two guildmates. She gazed over the faces of their characters to check if they had returned. She breathed a small sigh of relief when she saw that they were still as blank faced and rigged as ever. Which was a strange first for her, up to this very moment she had always thought of the blank faces of abandoned avatars to be by far one of the creepiest, most unsettling thing imaginable. After all they just screamed uncanny valley to her. So much so that unless she was raiding, she would always use the game setting that would automatically log her out when she took off her helmet. Though that was beside the point, what was important right now was that she wasn’t in any mood to jump into this topic so she let out a sigh before responding. “That’s a very long and complicated story Penny, one we don’t really have time for at the moment. And even if I did, I don’t think I should be the one to tell it.” She explained while glancing back at the pair of sisters across from her.

Penny’s eyes followed Nora’s and after a moment of thinking about it she seemed to understand what Nora was implying. “I suppose you are right, I have heard that it is improper to speak about others personal matters without their knowing.” She responded.

Nora nodded in agreement. “Good, now since we’re on the topic of family. I’ve been wondering something myself. And it’s about you Penny.”

“About me?” Penny echoed.

“Yes, I was curious if you had any family?” Nora inquired.

To Nora’s surprise Penny’s bright smile returned in full force. “Yes I do. I have a mother, a sister, and two fathers.”

“Really wow, I didn’t think they would go into that much detail!” Nora exclaimed before taking pause. “Wait, two fathers?”

Penny nodded her head. “Yes, I have one father in this world and another father in your world. My father in your world is the one who created me.”

“Oh, you mean like a developer! I guess he would count as your father. Hmm, but what about your other family members? I’ve only ever seen you here, do they live somewhere else?” Nora asked causing Penny’s expression to dip slightly and Nora to promptly correct herself. “I’m just curious, if you don’t want to say I will understand.”

Penny waved her hands dismissively. “No, its fine. I’m not mad and I don’t mind telling you. I’m just not sure about where they are right now. I haven’t seen them in a long time and my memories of them are a bit fuzzy.”

“I see.” That was all Nora could bring herself to say at that moment. After all she couldn’t rightly say what she was really thinking. Since Penny was a NPC with artificial memories her ‘family’ may not have even really existed in the first place and were just something that the developers made up to make her seem more human. Nora wasn’t so cruel as to give the poor girl an unwarranted identity crisis, so she didn’t press the issue.

That’s when Ruby’s character finally snapped back into motion with her blank expression being replaced by a pouty but some how adorable one. Noticing this Penny called out a greeting to her. “Salutations Ruby, have you resolved the problem with your sister?”

“Yeah, we’re good I guess. Sorry about up and disappearing on you Nora.” Ruby said in an apologetic tone.

“It’s alright, it wasn’t your fault. Well it kind of was I guess but I know you didn’t mean to so it’s all good. So where’s your sister, she come back?” Nora asked.

Ruby opened her mouth to respond but before she could get a word out Yang’s character snapped back into motion as well. “Hey guys, what did I miss?” She asked as dawned a triumphant smile and began stretching out.

Nora and Penny shared a quick glance before Nora shrugged. “Not much, we were just…” She paused for a moment when she heard the sound of a private message coming in. “Umm, could you guys hold on for a minute?” She asked and before waiting for a reply she flicked her wrist to open up her menu and began scrolling through it until she reached her message inbox. Just as she thought the inbox showed that she had one unread message.

“Who’s the message from?” Yang asked curiously.

“It’s from Jade.” Nora responded as she opened the message and began reading its contents. Upon doing so Nora’s eyes widened and began sparkling with excitement. “Oh, what do we have here?”

“What does it say?” Ruby asked.

In response to Ruby’s question Nora shot up out of her seat. “I will give you the details later, just know that we might need to make a change to the plans for tomorrow.” And with that Nora turned away from the table and began marching towards the exit leaving Ruby, Yang, and Penny there with confused expressions on their faces.

“What was that about?” Yang asked.

Ruby shrugged. “It’s Nora, who knows.”

“Maybe she had to use the bathroom.” Penny stated causing the other two girls to turn and stare at her.

///////////////////////////////////////////////

“AAHHHH!” Jaune squealed in terror as he booked it through a crimson red tree line as fast as his virtual legs could carry him. Jaune’s intended destination was somewhere at the end of the ever winding game trail that spiraled out before of him. Though where he was going wasn’t really his main concern at the moment. Rather he was far more concerned by how the ground seemed to tremble under his feet and that the natural sounds of the forest had been completely overtaken by animalistic growls and snarls that seemed to emanate from every direction at once.

Jaune took no comfort in the fact that he knew what was causing the noise either. After all it wasn’t just the wind, nor was it his imagination. It was instead, a pack of huge bloodthirsty wolves with jet black fur and glowing red eyes. And much to his dismay they were right behind him and dead set on clawing out his throat. With that in mind Jaune just kept running.

Every so often Jaune would glance back over his shoulder to check on the beasts and gasp when he met their hateful gaze and realize that their razor sharp claws had grown even closer. “I can’t believe I let her talk me into this! Just gather up as many mobs as you can she says! It will be fine as long as you keep moving she says! Seriously this is just cra… OUCH!” He screamed as he felt a sharp ripple of pain shoot through his body emanating from his chaff. He quickly glanced down to see that one of the monsters had caught up to him and just couldn’t wait for the other guests to arrive before taking a bite. The beast’s teeth were now digging into his lower leg and it was now being dragged along behind Jaune. Jaune quickly glanced at his health bar to see that the bite was currently causing him to bleed out. Which was a problem since it would not only damage him over time but also cause a crippling effect. This meant he had to do something fast otherwise the crippling effect would slow down his movements to a crawl and allow the other wolves a chance to catch up them. Once they swarmed him he would be screwed.

“Crap!” Jaune hissed before he activated his whirlwind attack ability. This ability caused his character to go into a rapid spinning motion that not only swatted away all the nearby wolves but after a few seconds inside the swirling blade-storm, his unwanted passenger was completely sliced apart. Then after the ability had ended and before his attackers could close in again he activated his warrior leap ability allowing him to jump high up into the air over the tree tops and land several yards outside of beast’s attack range. Then without missing a beat he broke into a slightly less steady run while the wolves gave zeroed in on him and continued to give chase.

“You aren’t going to catch me that easy!” He cheered but after a few seconds he had to stifle his joy when he realized that at the rate he was now going the wolves would catch back up to again in no time. At least if he didn’t deal with his injury soon. So he sheathed his sword to free up a hand which he used to opened up his inventory and select a mega elixir from its contents.

Pyrrha had given him several such elixirs right before they had begun this so called ‘training’ and so far it’s the only thing he’s been happy about. After the item was selected it appeared in his hand and he promptly downed the whole thing in one big gulp. A moment later and his health bar began to rapidly regenerate until the bite wound on his leg vanished along with its crippling debuff. Also a large stat boosting buff took its place on his display. When he pulled the empty bottle away from his lips he let out a satisfied sigh and instinctively wiped his mouth with the back of his palm. “Wow this stuff is effective, and it’s surprisingly tasty too! It’s no wonder it goes for so much gold in the market. I just hope Pyrrha doesn’t want me to pay her back for these.” He said while letting out a half hearted chuckle. “Hmm, speaking of Pyrrha I’m almost at our meeting place, I should contact her.” He thought to himself before opening his private message box and typing out a quick message and pressing the send button.

 **Private Message to Pyrrha the Gladiator:** “Hey Pyrrha I’m almost there, are you in position?”

After sending his message Jaune took a moment to glance back at the horde following him and noticed that a few had begun lose interest and break off. “Oh, no you don’t!” Jaune shouted before he activated his taunting shout ability causing not only all the wolves already on his tail to gain new vigor but it also drew out at least half a dozen more wolves from the surrounding area. Then that’s when Pyrrha’s message reached him.

 **Private Message from Pyrrha the Gladiator:** “Of course, did you manage to draw a good crowd?”

 **Private Message to Pyrrha the Gladiator:** “Oh yeah, and you better be ready to receive them! And I mean like now!”

A moment after Jaune had messaged back he stepped out into an open meadow. The moment he walked out into the meadow his eyes snapped wide as he gazed over it. Covering the meadow were the same crimson red leaves and broken tree branches that had littered his path up to this point and that was no surprise. What did catch him a little off guard however was the massive black bear monster stud in its center that was not glaring at him with hateful eyes. Unsure how to handle his new guest he glanced up at its display to see what he was dealing with.

The display read as follows Scarred Claw Level 25 Rare Boss. Seeing this caused Jaune to momentarily freeze place and stare in horror. “Why is there a boss out here!?” He screamed before trying to turn away and flee but his path had already been blocked by the approaching horde of furious wolves. “Oh yeah, nearly forgot about you guys.” He said nervously. “Umm, Pyrrha I could really use a hand over here!” He shouted towards the sky.

Then right on queue, Pyrrha leapt out from a nearby tree top, her shield and spear were at the ready and her expression determined. Once she was above the pack of monsters she opened her mouth to yell out the words. “Meteor Strike!” When she said those words, her body seemed to almost catch fire and then she was launched downward at a speed gravity couldn’t have possibly pulled her at. Her decent was aimed directly into the center of the unsuspecting wolf pack. When she collided with the ground, it was with enough force to release an earth shattering impact that sent out a shockwave of fire and scorched stone in every direction. Every beast caught in the calamity was instantly obliterated and the rest of the monsters suffered heavy damage and became staggered temporarily preventing them from moving or attacking. And of course without waiting for them to recover Pyrrha sprang up from her creator and began slashing the survivors apart with her spear, each one falling in just one or two hits.

Even though he had suffered no damage, Pyrrha’s move had rattled his bones and left him awestruck. He had no idea that such powerful abilities existed in this game. “What the heck was that and how do I do it?!” He asked.

Pyrrha chuckled before responding. “It’s a warrior special ability known as Meteor Strike. It’s a fairly powerful but high level ability. You also have to follow the correct skill tree in order to unlock it. It’s what we call an area of effect attack or AOE for short. AOE abilities tend to cause large amounts of damage spread out over wide areas, which makes them perfect for dealing with enemies in large groups like these.” Pyrrha explained before slicing the throat of another monster and pointing her blood soaked spear behind Jaune. “Watch your six Jaune!” She shouted.

Suddenly remembering what was still currently standing only a few feet behind him, Jaune spun around just in time to see the massive bear boss bringing its thick arms down to strike him. On reflex Jaune attempted to bring his shield up to block the incoming attack but the enemy had a head start and Jaune just wasn’t fast enough. Jaune’s shield was knocked aside as the beast’s claws connected with his chest, the impact causing a set of massive hit markers to appear next to Jaune’s display before he was thrown backward to land at Pyrrha’s feet with a thud.

Upon landing Jaune let out a groan of pain and quickly glanced up to see Pyrrha shaking her head while she easily dispatched several more wolves. With them out of the way she rush out in front of Jaune to block the bosses follow up attack. That’s when she glanced down to meet his eyes and address him. “Jaune, I’m sorry but, I don’t have any healing abilities so you need will to drink another Elixir!”

“Oh, right! I almost forgot about those!” He responded before promptly following Pyrrha’s instructions. He popped up his inventory and downed another Elixir. Just like before he felt rejuvenated in next to no time. “Dang this stuff is strong! How is this stuff even fair!?” He asked as he jumped back up to his feet and activated his charge and shield bash abilities to slam his shield directly into the chest of the boss monster like a human battering ram. The blow dealt a fair amount of damage and knocked the beast backward, staggering it.

“Well done!” Pyrrha declared cheerfully as she gave Jaune an approving nod. “The Elixirs only seem overpowered because you’re at a lower level than what they are meant for. Once you’ve reach level 30 and got yourself some better gear they won’t do as much for you. Besides, the ten minute cool down rate on those things is unbearably long.”

Jaune gave Pyrrha a quick nod to show that he understood before he leapt forward to take several swipes at his opponent with three of his attacks striking the bears arms and dealing small amounts of damage while the other two managed to strike its chest causing some critical damage. “Yeah, I’m doing it!” He cheered in the process.

By this point however the boss had fully recovered from Jaune’s battering ram attack and began its own counter offensive, starting by dishing out wide powerful swipes of its claws. Jaune squealed as he just managed to dunk under the first swipe. Then in the same motion he raised his shield to defend against the second strike. And though the shield did intercept the attack, Jaune was unprepared for the strength of the blow. When the claws impacted his shield he was sent reeling backward while his health bar dropped by nearly twenty percent. “Gees, this guy’s strong! Come to think of it, Pyrrha, why is there even a boss out here in the first place!? Did you know it was here!? And if so why didn’t you tell me about it!?”

Pyrrha shrugged. “Sorry Jaune, it’s a rare mob so I had no idea it was going to be out here today. However, this is a good fortune for us. A rare boss monster tends to be worth a lot of gold and experience. So come on and let’s kill this thing!” She stated before letting out a battle-cry and refocusing her gaze on the boss. She rushed towards it with incredible speed and began to unleash a squall of spear thrusts. Each thrust striking a joint or the chest causing critical hit markers to spam the air in rapid succession.

Jaune shrugged and quickly jumped back into the fray himself. His sword gleamed in the sunlight peaking in through the canopy as it began slicing and stabbing at the boss whenever he got an opening. Before long the boss’s health began to dwindle. It wasn’t until it was down to about ten percent of its remaining health that things got a bit more complicated. The bear started to glow slightly as it began charging up some sort of special attack.

“Umm, Pyrrha what’s it doing?!” Jaune asked in a slightly panicked tone.

“Oh my, that might be problematic!” Pyrrha shouted. And based on her reaction Jaune surmised that she clearly realizing what was about to happen. That’s when Pyrrha quickly activated another ability which placed a protective energy shield on Jaune. And not a moment too soon as the boss then released an ear-splitting roar that caused Pyrrha’s character to go completely ballistic. She began screaming in terror before bolting at full speed away from the boss. Then once she was a fair distance away she began running around aimlessly, almost like a chicken with its head cut off.

Jaune looked on in bewilderment before calling out to his manic companion. “Umm, Pyrrha what on earth are you doing!?” He shouted before glancing up to see her display. He hoped it could shed some light on just what the boss had done to her. It didn’t take him long to realize that Pyrrha had been struck with fear. He knew from basics guide that when a character becomes terrified they go completely out of their player’s control. Not only can they not use their abilities but they also can’t control their movement either. They will just try to get as far away from the source of their fear as possible. So it effectively renders them defenseless, at least until the effects wear off. Luckily for Jaune the shield Pyrrha had placed on him at the last moment seemed to protect him from the negative effects of the roar. That was a good thing to be sure. However now he was left to fend for himself and still had a boss to deal with.

The boss in question released a normal if a little bloody-thirsty roar before hauling itself at Jaune and launching into another series of swipe attacks. Jaune quickly dunked ender the first assault causing the beat to fly past him but it quickly righted itself and began another charge. Jaune stood at the ready, with his shield raised and his sword in a firm grip. “Alright, Jaune you can do this!” He cheered himself on as he rushed in to meet the boss head on.

Jaune dodged out of the way of the second attack and struck the ankle of the boss dealing minor damage but still managing to stagger it slightly and causing its next attack to be cancelled. That gave Jaune just the opening he needed and he took advantage. He thrust forward with his blade and plunged it into the bear’s chest. The blow struck home as it pierced several vitals and dealing a massive critical hit to the beast dropping its health down below five percent.

The boss seemed to almost take personal offence to this as it sent it into a complete rampage. Its eyes began to glow brighter and the blood-lust within turned to burning hatred. And with the visible effects came the more troubling ones. The boss’s attack speed had now been increased drastically. Jaune quickly tried to dodge away from the flurry of attacks that followed but was struck on the shoulder by the third blow which caused Pyrrha’s protective shield to flicker slightly as its effect’s weakened. Not wanting a repeat Jaune dodged the fourth swing and launched a counter attack, he sliced across length of the bears arm. If the beast were real, it would have left a mean scar but unfortunately the blow only dealt minor damage. And feeling undeterred the boss attacked again without so much as missing a beat. However Jaune was also ready and was able to raise his shield to defend against the next attack. And as the blow struck him, Jaune activated his iron wall ability which boosted his defensive power and allowed him to easily weather his opponent’s blow. And now with another opening he delivered another blow to the boss’s chest.

This savage melee stretched on for a several more seconds each one seeming longer than the last, until finally the boss’s health done to nothing be a sliver. By this time Pyrrha’s protective shield only had three seconds left on its duration. Since Jaune knew his protection was running out and that he only needed to deliver one more solid strike to end this fight. With that thought in mind he took a stance similar to the one Pyrrha had employed a moment ago and lunged at the boss with his sword aimed for its throat.

The boss had no intention of backing down however and met Jaune head on. The two launched what would undoubtedly be their finally attacks. Sword and claw passing one another nearly simultaneously and in that moment, time seemed to slow down. Jaune watched as his sword inched closer to boss’s neck while the bear’s claws closed in around him. Much to his dismay however, it looked as if the boss’s attack was slightly faster and would land first. And that wouldn’t be a problem with his protections up but, Pyrrha’s shield had less than a second left before it vanished now. Without out its protection backing him up, the beast’s mighty blow would likely kill.

Jaune’s life was just far too low to tank such a hit. And if he died mid-swing it would cause his own attack to be cancelled out and even if it didn’t for some reason, he couldn’t gain experience while he was dead. That would mean that all of this effort would be for nothing. However there didn’t seem to be much he could do about it at this point. There just wasn’t enough time left on his shield, if only he had just a little more time then maybe he could win this.

Right as the last tick of Jaune’s shield came and went the boss’s claw struck Jaune in the chest. While at the same time his blade dug itself deep into the boss’s neck. As the tip of the blade popped out the back of its neck a large hit marker popped up above the boss’s head. The boss’s health bar shuck as it fell to zero percent and it let out a guttural dying roar that was muffled by the blade embedded in its throat. Then without ceremony it collapsed on the ground dead.

Jaune on the other hand had been sent flying. He had been knocked backward by the force of his opponent’s attack. His health bar was jumping wildly as he bounced off the ground several times before he finally came to a stop flat on his back in the middle of the meadow. He laid there motionless for a moment, breathing heavily. His health bar was now at a measly three percent but, it wasn’t zero which was a pleasant surprise.

Jaune groaned as pulled himself up into a sitting position. He took a moment to glance over at the boss who was now dissipating and at his own display which now had a nice chunk of experience. While he did so, his face contorted in confusion. “What the heck just happened? I thought for sure that I’d be dead after that attack.”

Jaune was shaken from his thoughts by the sound of a familiar voice. “Oh, yeah you really cut it close there. Good thing that fear wore off before it was too later.” Pyrrha said as she walked up to meet him.

Jaune looked up at Pyrrha who was not next to him and motion towards his own display. Jaune quickly did a double take and that’s when he realized that Pyrrha had cast another defensive ability on him right before the boss’s attack had connected. “Wow, Pyrrha talk about a save. I owe you one.” He declared cheerfully.

Pyrrha gave him a wide proud smile before responding. “No need Jaune, you earned this one. I get the feeling that you really will be a great player some day.”

“Ah, gees stop it.” Jaune said bashfully.

“Yes, I suppose your right, there’s no time to be sitting around. We still got a lot more training to do before tomorrow!” Pyrrha declared.

“Wait there’s more!?” Jaune gasped suddenly feeling faint.

“Of course, you haven’t even gained a single level yet. And you still need to practice your luring a bit more you know, it’s a critical skill for a tank to have after all. So are you ready!?” She asked cheerfully.

Jaune let out an audible gulping sound before responding. “There won’t be anymore boss monsters right?”

“We’ll see.” Pyrrha said cheekily.


	7. ROR Part 7: The Patch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nora sees whats to come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Patch Notes: About six-thousand new words, new cover art, new proof reader MartunaMajor, grammar and spelling fixes, and about one-hundred times more awesome!
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY. Additionally MarunaMajor's alterations have not been made as of yet.
> 
> Wow was this chapter a project, though it's not quite as long as chapter 6 it feels much longer to me. You can kind of think of this chapter as a lore chapter. It mostly covers stuff that is important to the plot of Realm of Remnant the game. A lot of world building is going on here and you may notice some similarities to World of Warcraft. I just want to point out that though I do take some inspiration from Warcraft this is more of a parody than a crossover. There will be no direct overlap between the two.

Nora was excited, well that and tired, hungry, thirsty, frustrated, and more pressingly about to piss her pajamas but, mostly excited. Though not even she was quite sure what it was she was excited about quite yet. All she knew for sure was that something was coming, and she was determined to find out what it was.

That's why she was currently sat in front of her desktop computer staring intently into her monitor. Her eyes were darting up and down the screen as if in search of something. She would only look away once every few seconds to glance down at the digital clock in the bottom right hand corner of the screen. The clock currently read 11:58pm, it was nearly midnight. Since she had a busy day ahead of her tomorrow she would normally be in bed by now, but she didn't really care right now.

At least she didn't care if what Jade's message said was true. And from her experience, Jade's info was usually spot on. Nora had no idea where Jade got all her info from, but the girl always seemed to be ahead of the game. It made Nora often wonder if Jade knew somebody on the inside. With how well informed she was it would explain a lot. With that in mind, Nora snatched up her phone, which was lying on the desk beside her so she could reread Jade's email for about the sixth time that night. "There's going to be a big announcement on ROR's main sight around midnight tonight. I think it will affect our plans for tomorrow, so you will want to check it out." As always, it hadn't changed and there were no new messages. With a sigh, she slapped her phone back on the desk and refocused on the screen.

The time was now 11:59pm, and Nora's hand was busy clicking away on her mouse, while the cursor hovered over the refresh button. "Come on already, I got to pee!" She hissed. The time was 12:00am and there was still no change. "Ugh, maybe I should just go to the bathroom already!" She declared with a huffed, but she made no motion to leave. The wheels of her chair remained completely still while her fingers just kept clicking and her eyes just kept searching.

Once the clock read 12:05am, she felt like her bladder was going to pop. She always found some humor in moments like these, though it was a dark kind of humor that most wouldn't want to indulge in. This was due to the fact that after the accident that took almost everything from her, the doctors actually had the gall to tell her that she was lucky. Sure, her legs didn't work anymore, but at least she was alive and still had some feeling in her girly bits. And this thankfully meant that she could still retain some control over her bladder. However, it wasn't smooth sailing ahead since she lacked the ability to clench properly. This was a problem since it made it very hard to stop peeing once she got started.

Of course, bladder problems aren't the sort of thing most people really think about when they see a handicapped person on the street or on TV. Sure, a lot of people have spent at least some amount of time with a leg injury to be able to imagine what it might be like to completely lose their ability to walk. However, they never think about what's beyond that. The lack of mobility sucks for sure, but it's just one in a long list of problems people like Nora faced. There was the blood clots, the numbness, and worst of all, there was the constant stares. (No pun intended.) Nora hated those pained and uncomfortable looks so much.

At least her friends knew better than to look at her like that. They knew who she really was, she was a mighty warrior. And true warriors don't need anyone's sympathy! However, this warrior could seriously use a potty break. "Fine, I surrender!" She roared as she threw her arms up in mock defeat. "I guess I will go fresh up real quick." She sighed as she began to turn her chair in the direction of the door, but then halted to glance back at the screen. The clock read 12:10am. "Just one more try." She said as she reached over to click on the mouse again and refresh the page.

Expecting nothing to change, she was already moving her hands into position to wheel herself away when the page began to load in properly and something instantly caught her attention. Her eyes snapped back over to the screen which now displayed a message at the top in big bold letters. "Patch 2.9.0 The Third Crusade pre-expansion patch is incoming!?" She read allowed. "Jade was right, a pre-expansion patch was big news." Nora thought as her eyes quickly skimmed through the patch notes.

It looked like a large portion of the patch was focused on laying down the groundwork for the upcoming expansion. So most of it's content was things she had already known about for a while, like class rebalances, new areas to explore, and the usual bug fixes. However, there were a few things that did catch her eye. "There's going to be new heroic quests and optional bosses?!"

Nora's interest was peaked and her bladder troubles were forgotten. She quickly read on and tried her best to get her tired mind to absorb the information. If she was reading this correctly, then it meant new bosses and quest chains were going to be added to the old heroic dungeons before the full expansion launched. The bosses and quests would act as a lead into the story of The Third Crusade. There was also a list of dungeons that would be getting the new content. She couldn't help but smile when she read off the first name on the list. "The Emerald Forest."

She quickly read on, trying to garner as much information as possible. What shocked Nora the most as she finished reading was the launch date for this patch. She took a quick moment to double check the date and then she was certain. "This launches today! Why didn't they give us any prior announcement!? I got to tell everyone so we can get ready!"

She went for her phone again, but took pause when her scroll wheel reached the bottom of the page and an embedded video came into view. "What's this, a new trailer?" She pondered as she leaned closer to the screen to read the title above the video. "The Third Crusade Cinematic Tailor. Oh, a Cinematic tailor! They haven't put out any yet! Oh, the girls are going to freak when they hear about this! Especially Blake, she's such a lore buff." With that, Nora quickly moved the mouse over to the video and clicked the play button. "Alright, let's see what you got for me."

Without delay, ominous music began to emanate from her speak system as the video started up. As always, she was greeted by the ESRB rating. It's not normally something you would pay much attention too, at least when you plan to play the game regardless of who the ESRB thinks should be playing it. However, ROR's rating has an interesting story behind it.

Officially, Realm of Remnant is rated T for teen. It owes this rating to many of the usual culprits for games like these, such as Blood and Gore, Crude Humor, Mild Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence, and Use of Alcohol. However, the game did go through a shaky period in which the ESRB had tried to up the rating to M for mature.

The reason for this was largely because of the game's ability to stimulate the senses so accurately. And it kind of made some sense. After all, people could actually physically touch each other and on top of that a person playing this game could feel real pain and pleasure. Though ROR wasn't the first game to ever utilize these VR features, it was the first on such a large scale. And no game could quite match how accurately ROR could simulate the sensation of touch. And of course, since ROR was the first game of it's kind, nobody was quite sure how to handle it. Of course, the developers didn't want to make such a drastic change and limit their player base, so a compromise was eventually reached. ROR would retain it's T for Teen rating, but it was now required to have player collision and all sensory stimulation turned off by default.

This story was also one that Nora had heard about from Jade, which added to an ever increasing list of evidence that supported her theory about this girl having insider information. However, that wasn't really that important right now, so she focused on the video. The rating had already faded away and another familiar sight had appeared on the screen. Winter Entertainment, the name of ROR's developer was spread across the screen in big bold letters. However, before that image had even left the screen the sound of pained roars entered Nora's ears and caused her eyes to focus even more intensely.

Slowly, the video panned in. The location was one Nora had never seen before. It was a dark chamber in what appeared to be an underground cave system of some sort. Nora thought it may be an arctic cave system because at the center of the chamber was a massive block of solid ice. What really caught Nora's eye however was the equally massive figure encased in it. It looked like a dragon of some sort. Nora squinted and tried to get a better look, but before she could a crack appeared on the icy shell and the screen hard cut to a different location.

This new location was all too familiar to her. It was the gilded throne chamber of Dagannoth, the Dragon King. And from what Nora could see, this scene seemed to be set right after his defeat at the hands of the heros. The once mighty King was now little more than a broken heap of bloody scales and twisted metal. However, despite his sorry state, he still drew breath and was still seethed. His eyes had lost none of their edge and his pained and furious roars echoed off every wall in the gilded chamber. **"You incent whelps will pay for this! I swear you will all suffer a thousand times over!"** Nora allowed herself a little laugh since she knew that he was all bark and no bite at this point. She supposed with his body no longer able to do the job, it was up to his tongue to lash out at his enemies.

That's when Nora heard a commotion coming from somewhere off screen, and the adventurers must have heard it as well since they began to make way. A clear path had now formed between the Dragon King and a pair of new figures that had come to stand in the threshold of the throne chamber. When Nora saw the pair, she instantly recognized the two of them.

The first was none other than the King of the Kingdom of Vale, Ozpin the Great and at his side was his queen, the High Archmage Glynda. "Well done heroes, your deeds this day will be known throughout the land and upon our return you shall be rewarded generously! Now, you can leave the rest to us!" The King declared before him and his partner marched past the threshold into the throne room proper. Following them close behind was a small legion of soldiers who all looked a little more than nervous. Whether it was because they were in the lair of their enemy or because their King was leading the charge was unclear, but Nora could imagine that they didn't care for either.

Nora wasn't quite sure what was going on, but so far she was enthralled. She knew that King Ozpin and Queen/Archmage Glynda were quite important in the lore of ROR. However, she wasn't nearly as big of a lore buff as Blake and didn't really know all that much about them. Only what she had experienced first hand during quests and raids. What she did know, however was that King Ozpin had been leading the united forces of the four human and faunus kingdoms against the Golden Dragon Flight. The Flight had been trying to enslave and subjugate the human and faunus for centuries, and the people had finally had enough. And more importantly, it looked like the Dragon King was about to get what was coming to him.

Dagannoth's baneful eyes landed on the human King approaching him and his pained expression twisted in what seemed to be disgust. **"False King, you dare show your face before me!? Traitors like you shall burn!"** He roared as he suddenly reared up on one shaky knee, causing the adventurers and soldiers to snap back into defensive stances. Before any of them could make a move however, Dagannoth unhinged his jaw and unleashed a jet of hot flame from his maw with the intent of reducing Ozpin to ashes. Ozpin didn't seem concerned however and made no motion to block or evade the attack, and it ultimately proved unnecessary when his queen quickly stepped forward, placing herself between the blaze and her King and raised her enchanted wand to create a magical barrier in front of them. The flames had slammed into the magical barrier and did little more then put on a flashy show before they were quickly nullified all together.

Mostly unaffected by the attempt on his life, Ozpin began to speak. "It's over Dagannoth, your spire has been taken and your dragon flight has been vanquished. No longer will man nor faunus be forced to live under your tyrannical rule! On this day, we all shall be free." He declared proudly as he stepped closer to the dying king.

Dagannoth stared down at the man for a long moment. **"You think you have won?"** He asked as he began to chuckle until blood caught in his throat and he began to cough. **"You think you're free? You foolish creatures have accomplished nothing but biting the hand that feeds you! In doing so, you have insured your own destruction!"**

"You still believe you have the power to defeat us?" Glynda was the one who spoke this time. Her words were cold, and her glare no warmer. Any mortal man would have been frozen solid if they stood before her now. "If you truly believe that to be true, than you're a fool of the highest caliber."

Dagannoth only continued to chuckle mirthlessly for a moment before snapping at the women. "You know nothing, you insolent wench!" He growled.

"Wench!? How dare-" Glynda started to say before a rumbling began to echo through the spire, catching her attention. "What's going on!?" She shouted.

Ozpin still looked as calm as ever as he stepped even closer to the dying king. "Dagannoth, what is happening here? What is causing this shaking?"

**"She's coming."** Dagannoth responded dryly before the screen hard cut back to the icy cavern and the frozen dragon. Only now, the ice holding it in place was crumbling and falling off in whole sheets. Then the shot slowly panned in on the dragon's face. It was still and it's eyes were closed tight, but the moment the shot came close the eyes of the dragon snapped open and the screen hard cut back to the throne room.

Once the screen had cut back, Dagannoth continued speaking. **"Because of your so called heroes, I no longer have the strength to contain her. I would suggest that you heathens start praying to whatever deity you worship now because she will be upon us soon. And when she arrives, we will all be doomed."**

"Who's coming, who is she!?" Glynda snapped before a massive tremor rocked the whole spire.

As he spoke, Dagannoth's words became almost mournful. **"The seal is broken, my queen. My angel of death has returned."**

The dragon's words must have stirred something within him, since Ozpin's calm and composed demeanor finally crumbled away and pure terror was left in its place. "No, it can't be! The Ruby Queen still lives!?"

Then the video's music began to pick up as a drum beat was added to the mix and a thunderous roar echoed from the corridor Ozpin had entered the chamber from. It was soon followed by the sounds of horrifying screams of panic and agony. "Ozpin, what's happening!?" Glynda asked as desperation seeped from her voice.

"There's no time to explain! Men, prepare yourselves. It would seem that this battle isn't finished quite yet!" Ozpin commanded as he pulled his own sword free from its scabbard and turned to face the entrance.

The adventurers were stunned for a moment, their eyes darting back and forth between each other uncertainly. But then one adventurer raised his weapons and ran towards the door shouting: "Defend the King!" With that, every adventurer and soldier let out a battle cry as they also readied their own weapons and turned to face the entrance. However, their battle cries were soon turned to screams when a wave of red hot flame swept through the corridor and washed out into the throne chamber. The raging blaze came so suddenly that few had time to defend themselves. Many of the soldiers were engulfed and instantly reduced to little more than charred bones wrapped in molten steel.

Then a sinister voice cut through the chaos. **"Ah, so this is where you were, Dagannoth. And here I was beginning to think that you were trying to hide from me."** The voice hissed as it moved closer, parting the flames in it's path. Out from the towering inferno sprang a colossal figure with blood red scales and wings as black as onyx. Many of the adventurers gasped as they took in the striking visage of the massive creature creeping its way into the throne chamber.

**"N-no of course I wouldn't. I-it woul-wouldn't do me much good, now would it?"** Dagannoth forced out through blood filled coughing fits.

The new dragon took pause for the briefest of moments while its amber eyes gleamed in the light of the fires and it took in its surroundings. **"None, at least not in the sorry state you're in. I would almost feel bad for you, if it wasn't for the fact that I had told you this would happen."**

**"You thought you could control these insects. You thought that you could make them your puppets, but I knew better. I had warned you again and again that these creatures,"** The dragon made a sweeping motion with it's claws to draw attention to the humans scattered around the throne chamber. **"They couldn't be trusted! You should have dealt with them as soon as possible! Instead however, you turned your back against your own kind! You betrayed us, you betrayed me! And now you are suffering for your arrogance!"**

After the Dragon Queen's rant, her eyes fell upon Ozpin. There was a flash confusion that came over them for a brief moment, only for them to harden into a baneful glare that trumped anything Dagannoth could produce. **"Well, if it isn't the second traitor. It makes sense that you would be, I suppose. And I'm glad you're here actually, that will make all of this much easier. However,"** She stated turning her attention back onto Dagannoth. **"You should have told me we would be entertaining guests! The spire is a complete mess and I just woke up! A proper woman needs time to prepare, don't you know!? I haven't even put my face on yet! Allow me to remedy that."** As if she wasn't imposing already, she raised herself up on her hind legs and spread out her wings before folding them around her body like a cloak. That's when she began chanting some sort of incantation and without much delay, her body began to emit a bright glow as her stature rapidly diminished until an almost human like form took its place.

The dragon's crimson scales pinked to take on a more flesh like color. Her horns darkened and curved backward until they suddenly became lush strands of raven hair, and her wings flexed before folding around her nearly naked body. With a flick of her now feminine hands, the wings were replaced by a radiant red dress. "There, that's much better." She stated happily as she began to strut forward past the flames.

Nearly all of the soldiers and adventurers looked stunned, uncertainty freezing them in place as the raven haired women simply strolled past them. Nora supposed that many of them prided themselves on being ready for just about anything. However, it seems like a dragon transforming herself into a beautiful woman doesn't fall into the usual category of things to look out for in battle. As she continued to close the distance between them unopposed, Ozpin seemed to become edgier and edgier. His grip had tightened on the hilt of his sword and his jaw was clenched tight. Finally losing his patience, "What ar-"

Ozpin didn't get to finish what he was saying as Glynda took charge. "What're you doing, men!? The enemy is right before you! Fight, fight for your freedom!" She commanded, causing the soldiers to finally spring into action with the adventurers following close behind. Satisfied, Glynda went on the offensive herself, letting loose a blast of arcane magic in the dragoness' direction.

The arcane blast cleared the distance between them in what seemed like a fraction of a second, but the dragoness was quick to defend herself. One of her black wings rematerialized out of thin air in front of her and when the blast was about to hit, her wing snapped like a whip, knocking it off course and directly into the chest of another attacking soldier who proceeded to collapse on the ground smoldering. The dragon's mouth curved up into a cruel smile as she watched the man drop like a stone. "Oh my, that is unfortunate. How will you ever explain that to his family?" She taunted.

"Fiend!" Glynda roared a she continued to unleash magical attacks of varying elements.

The dragon ducked and weaved around several blasts while dispatching soldiers left and right. One adventurer leaped into the air behind her with the intent of caving in her skull with a massive warhammer. Instead however, he was yanked out of the air by a dragon's tail that seemed to come out of nowhere. And then he was promptly slammed into the ground hard enough to crack the gold plating. The man gasped as the air left his lungs and he felt his bones crack, but he felt himself being lifted again before being slammed face first into the ground and the world turning dark. Then the dragon snapped her tail again to throw the lifeless body of the adventurer into the path of another two soldiers, knocking them off their feet.

Now done playing the defensive, the dragoness went on the attack. Nora watched with swelling amusement as the heroes were thrown around like rag dolls or burned to cinders. Despite their numbers, all the advantage seemed to be on the dragon's side in this fight.

A moment later and the battle was all but decided. The allied forces were sprawled out in broken or burning heaps across the throne chamber and all that was left standing was Ozpin, Glynda, the dragoness who Nora still hadn't caught the name of, and ironically Dagannoth. Ozpin and Glynda were being pushed back and the dragoness had now returned to her true form. Nora wasn't sure how this was going to go but the trailer was reaching the last few seconds of it's run time, so she new something had to give. And give it did.

**"It's time to end this!"** The dragoness declared as her maw began to glow with the familiar heat of flame.

"I won't let you!" Ozpin huffed as he staged forward with this blade held up shakily. The dragon only cackled before she unleashed her fire breathe on Ozpin.

Ozpin didn't falter however, he stood firm as the flames raced to engulf him in their glow. Glynda's eyes had widened in complete horror as she saw the flames approach. "Ozpin, no!" She shouted, and before she could think of anything else she rushed in to put herself between her King and the flames. Once she had made it, she flicked her wand and summoned a magical barrier not unlike the one she had used against Dagannoth, only this one was far larger.

The dragoness only continued to laugh as her flames slammed against the shield. For a moment, it looked like it would hold like it had before. However those hopes were dashed as cracks began to form. "I can't hold it! Ozpin, you have to get out of here!" Glynda warned.

"No, I can't leave you to her! We fight together!" Ozpin argued.

For the first time since the battle began, Glynda's eyes lost their hard edge as she looked back at Ozpin. "Oz, I'm- I-" She didn't get to finish those word as the barrier shattered and flames swept over them. "Ahhh!" Glynda screamed as she clenched and waited for the enviable.

"Ahhh!" Glynda screamed as she clenched and waited for the enviable. Only the enviable hadn't come. She had felt something coil with her and knock her to the ground, and she had also felt the heat of the flames wash over her. However, what she didn't feel was the blistering pain one would usually expected from being lit on fire. At first she thought that it was due to shock, but when she finally cracked her eyes open to see the damage for herself, a far more gut wrenching sight greeted her. "Ozpin!" She screamed.

In the moment after Glynda's shield had shattered and before the flames had reached her, Ozpin had pulled her out of harm's way and shielded her with his own body. Realizing this, she slipped out from under the man and quickly laid him down on his stomach as gently as she could so she would be able to inspect his wounds. What she found filled her with a mix of anger and concern. Ozpin's armor and the clothing covering his back side had all been burned right off and the flesh below them was now seared as black as charcoal. She didn't think anyone could survive such a horrible burn. However, much to her relief, Ozpin seemed to still be holding on, if only barely. "Oz, it's going to be okay, just stay with me!" She pleaded as she cradled him in her arms. Ozpin could only manage to reply with a groan.

"How very touching, as much as I enjoy you wallowing in despair, I'm going to have to cut this little moment of yours short." The dragoness stated as she stepped forward to stand over the two. "You see, I have business with that little traitor you have there. So, would you be a dear and hand him over?" She said as she extended a claw to point at Ozpin.

Glynda's eyes snapped upward to meet the gaze of the dragoness and she directed the most cold, hateful glare she had ever managed onto the beast. "Over, my, dead, body!" She growled as she leveled her wand to fire another arcane blast into the face of the dragon.

The dragon's eyes widened right before the blast struck, and the resulting explosion caused her to reel backward. However, Glynda's small victory was short lived as the dragoness quickly recovered. "Very well, we can do things your way, witch!" Glynda didn't even have time to cast another spell before the dragon struck her with the back of her claw and sent her flying across the expanse of nearly the entire chamber before slamming into a far well and crumbling to the ground, motionless.

"Gl-glynda-" Ozpin managed to say as he futilely tried to reach out towards his fallen queen.

Then Ozpin was completely pinned to the ground by the dragoness' claw before the claw wrapped around him and hoisted him up to meet the dragon's eyes. "It's been a long time, hasn't Fyalom?"

"Not long enough if you ask me, Cinder!" Ozpin roared as he struggled against the dragon's grip.

"You wound me, Fyalom. Is that really all you have to say to your old friend after all this time?" The dragon known as Cinder hissed.

"You were never my friend, you monster! And stop calling me that, my name is Ozpin!" Ozpin snapped.

Cinder seemed annoyed as she spoke. "So it would seem. Which leads me to my next question, why didn't you reveal your true form during our battle? If you had, you wouldn't have ended up in such a sorry state like this."

Ozpin scuffed. "I couldn't even if I wanted to. I gave up that part of me a long time ago!"

"Then you're an even greater fool than I ever thought. You're of no use to me." Cinder hissed before discarding Ozpin amongst the rubble and continuing on her way.

"Are you showing me mercy? That is so unlike you." Ozpin spat.

Cinder turned around to briefly glance over at Ozpin and her eyes gleamed mincingly. "Mercy? No, this is no mercy, vermin. I just thought it would be so much better to let you watch. Watch me as I purge this world of the pathetic creatures you seem to love so much. Watch as I burn their Kingdoms and as the dragons retake their rightful place. So why don't you just enjoy the show."

With that said, Cinder finally made her way to stand over Dagannoth, who was just barely hanging on to life. Noticing her approach, Dagannoth leaned up to address her. "It's good to see you, my Queen. Did you sleep well?"

"I'm in no mood for your small talk, Dagannoth! I have a world to bring to its knees and you have something I need to do that! Give it to me, or I shall take it by force!" She commanded.

Dagannoth laughed a mirthless blood curdled laugh before bringing a claw to his chest and responding. "I suppose it won't do me any good now. And besides, it was yours all along." He declared before plunging his claws into his own chest. He shuddered and groaned with the pain as his claw moved through his flesh and gripped onto something inside. Once he had a firm grip, he ripped his own still beating heart from his chest and presented it to Cinder. "Take it, and make them burn!"

"Gladly!" She responded as she pulled the heart free, causing Dagonnoth to gasp before collapsing to the ground. Cinder's eyes lit up as she gazed at the Dragon King's heart in her hands. It was no longer connected to the king now, but still it beat and emitted a strange magical energy that made her mouth water. "Finally, I am whole again!" She cried as she devoured the heart with a lustful vigor. And when she finally finished she let out a roar that echoed off the chamber walls and she flexed her wings before giving one powerful flap. She launched herself forward towards the back wall and before colliding she unleashed a blast of fire so hot that it burned straight through ten inches of solid gold and stone. She created a hole to the outside of the spire which she proceeded to fly through.

Once Cinder was outside, she began to circle the spire while moving towards the top, the whole way trailing a wave of flame over the spire. By the time she perched herself on top of the spire, the whole structure was engulfed in her flames and she let out a victorious roar. "It's time, my minions! It's time for us to return to the skies! Let the sounds of your beating wings be the anthem as we purify this world in the fires of our hatred!"

Then it quickly cut between a few still images of different dungeon locations and what seemed to be slumbering dragons awakening and then the video finally ended by displaying the Third Crusade title and it's currently announced release date. Nora was stunned silent for a moment, she was so enthralled that she almost forgot that she was watching a trailer. "That, was so… Amazing!" She cheered as she threw her hands up. "I'm so pumped, I have to talk to somebody right now!" She declared as she grabbed for her phone and pressed the first number in her contacts.

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Pyrrha was sleeping peacefully in her bed when it was suddenly interrupted by the sound of her cell phone ringing. She slowly lifted herself up out of bed and wiped the sand from her eyes. Then she glanced over at her nightstand where her phone laid, it's bright blue screen the only source of light in her dark room making it hard to miss.

"Who could be calling at this hour?" She pondered as she reached over to pick the phone up and look at the caller id. "Nora, of course." Pyrrha sighed as she contemplated letting it just go to voice mail. However, when the thought of Nora possibly being in some sort of trouble crossed her mind, she decided against it. So she pressed the accept call button. "Hello, Nora? Is everything alright?"

Then the sound of Nora's excited voice sprang from the speaker. "Yeah of course I am, silly! Why wouldn't I be!? Oh, and more importantly, did you see it?!"

Pyrrha let out another sigh of both relief and frustration before responding in a slightly annoyed tone. "Nora, what are you talking about? See what?"

"I'm talking about the new cinematic trailer for the Third Crusade, of course! It's really intense! You just have to check it out!" Nora explained.

"Nora, as awesome as that sounds, it's the middle of the night and we all have a big day ahead of us tomorrow. So if you don't mind, I would like to get back to bed." Pyrrha said with her voice sounding far angrier than she had intended it to be.

"Ah, right, sorry Pyrrha, I didn't think." Nora said sorrowfully.

Hearing her friend's disappointed voice caused Pyrrha to stiffen slightly. "No, it's alright. I'm sorry that I snapped at you there. I get a little grumpy when I don't get enough beauty sleep." She said jokingly, hoping to lighten the mood.

"Apology accepted! Though I don't see why you would need any more beauty sleep. I feel like you already got your beauty skill maxed out." Nora responded with her usual cheer returned.

Pyrrha knew Nora was joking, but it still made her face heat up slightly. "Anyway, I think I'm going to get back to bed. I swear I will watch the trailer in the morning."

"Fine, but you better call me when you do! We have to discus a change to our raiding plans for tomorrow anyway." Nora relented.

This caught Pyrrha's attention. "Wait, what do you mean changes? Are we not going to be raiding Emerald Forest?" She didn't want to hear that all of her and Jaune's training today had gone to waste.

"Oh, we're still going to be raiding Emerald Forest, so don't you worry. However, it's just going to be a little bit different this time around. You will understand when you read the patch notes." Nora explained, but before Pyrrha could ask her to do a better job of it, Nora spoke again. "Anyway, I guess I will let you go now. I'm getting a call from Blake anyway. And if you don't want to nerd out with me, then it looks like I will have no choice but to fall into the bosom of my mistress." Nora said teasingly before hanging up.

Pyrrha groaned as she looked down at the clock on her phone. "Screw it! A few less minutes of sleep won't hurt." She stated as she made her way over to her computer. "Let's see what these patch notes are about."

#### To Be Continued...


	8. ROR Part 8: The Emerald Forest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nora and the gang are ready to raid but first a plan must be made.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What another chapter already? Yes your eyes do no decieve you. I was feeling quite motivated and ended up pumping out a another chapter for you guys. This time around Nora and the gang are finally ready to raid. I would once again like to thank my proof reader MartunaMajor for aiding in this project. And of course all of you guys for supporting this series. Hearing your feedback has really helped me along and I hope you continue to show your support in the future.
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY.

“This is amazing!” Jaune squealed over the sound of the rushing wind as he soared through the sky on the back of a massive winged creature. His guild had decided to meet up in front of the raid dungeon entrance to save time, he was currently traveling there via flying mount and was holding onto the waist of his new friend and mentor Pyrrha for dear life.

Pyrrha let out an amused giggle before she spoke. “I know, right? I remember back when I was a little kid and I always used to have dreams just like this. Dreams about flying high above the clouds without a care in the world, that is. Well, it was one of many dreams, but I never thought that out of all those childhood dreams, that this would be the one to come true.” She mused.

“Yeah, VR is incredible. I mean it’s just so realistic! I can feel the wind on my face. I can hear your Griffin’s wings beating. And I can see the whole world from up here.” He stated as he glanced over the side of the Griffin down towards the winding landscape of Remnant. And he suddenly realized his mistake when he became light headed and dizzy. “Okay, maybe VR is too realistic. Umm, is it a bad time to mention that I get motion sick very easily? And I don’t do well with heights either to be perfectly honest.”

Pyrrha giggled again. “Don’t worry, it’s not like you can throw up on me through your headset. At least they better not have installed that feature while I wasn’t paying attention.” She said jokingly, though the groan that Jaune gave back to her suggested he wasn’t amused. “I guess I should also tell you that I know of a possible fix for your motion sickness problem.”

“Really?!” Jaune asked excitedly.

“Yeah, I had a few issues with it myself when I first started playing ROR. VR can be jarring for those who aren’t use to it after all. All you have to do is go into your player settings and turn down your sensory input. Once you do that, you won’t feel the churning in your stomach anymore.” She explained.

“Oh, right I forgot I could do that!” Jaune exclaimed before promptly following his friend’s instructions and dialing back his sensory import. It was an odd feeling to be so numb. He could feel the ghostly presences of his computer chair more clearly than the saddle of Pyrrha’s mount now but it seemed to work.

“Feeling better?” Pyrrha asked.

“Better, thanks Pyrrha.” Jaune replied, earning him a warm smile from the red haired gladiator in front of him. After that, the two spent a few minutes flying in silence until Jaune found another topic to fill it with. “By the way, how did you get this mount? My sisters don’t even have flying mounts like this.”

Pyrrha hummed thoughtfully for a moment before replying. “Well, I received mine as a special reward you get for reaching the top in PVP leaderboards. Though there are other methods that are far less difficult. For example, you could purchase a flying mount from an NPC. However, flying mounts can be very expensive, even for high level players. If you don’t feel like putting out the cash you can try your luck at getting one from a boss drop, though. Mind you of course, only a handful of high level bosses even have the possibility of dropping flying mounts, and they tend to be fairly rare and highly sought after.”

“I guess I won’t be getting one of these anytime soon then, huh?” Jaune asked jokingly.

Pyrrha shrugged. “Oh, I wouldn’t sell yourself short quite yet. If you stick with us long enough, then it’s only a matter of time.”

“Don’t tease me. Does everyone in our guild have flying mounts?” Jaune asked curiously.

“I don’t know about everyone, though I do know that most of us do. I’m also quite jealous of Nora’s Gilded Drake. It’s a super rare golden dragon mount you can only get from Dragon King, Dagannoth.” Pyrrha replied.

“Jealousy? That doesn’t sound like you.” Jaune teased.

“Then I guess we still need to get to know each other a bit better, huh?” Pyrrha teased back.

Jaune chuckled before spotting something in the distance and pointing towards it. “Hey, is that it!? Is that the Emerald forest!?”

Pyrrha looked forward towards where Jaune was indicating and indeed spread out below them was the all too familiar forest. And she could see figures gathering around the entrance. “Yep, that’s it alright. Oh,and look down there, that must be everyone else!” She declared as she directed Jaune’s attention towards the ground.

“Looks like it.” He replied nervously. “You sure I will be able to handle this?”

“Don’t worry, Jaune. we trained for this, so you will do fine. Now let’s go greet the others and get this started!” She declared before directing her mount down to the ground.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////

"Violet Crusaders, attention!" Nora declared while she came to stand before her fellow guild members who each regarded her in turn.

Nora felt a small smile tugging at the edges of her lips when she gazed out over her raiding party. As small as her group was, she couldn't help but feel proud of their dedication. After hearing about the new boss encounter, Nora had moved up the Raid a full two hours. And on top of that, they didn't plan to use a full raiding party. They figured five or six people would have been more than enough to take on a low tier dungeon like the Emerald Forest, and most of them didn't have anything to gain from it anymore. So what would be the point, right? And yet here they all were.

Pyrrha/The Gladiator, Jade Lotus, Ruby/Little Red, Blake/Black Cat, The Monkey King, Snow Angel, Yang/The Yellow Dragon, and of course their latest recruit, Jaune of the Arc. Despite the short notice of it all, every member of the Crusaders with only a few exceptions had made it to the meet-up point right outside of the dungeon on time. And on top of that, they all looked ready to claim the glory they so rightfully deserved.

Not wanting to keep her loyal subjects waiting, Nora began to address them. "Good morning everyone, I'm glad to see you all made it here without any trouble! You ready to raid!?" She asked excitedly, and without waiting for a response she continued. "As I'm sure you've all heard by now, our plans for today have changed ever so slightly! And in case you haven't heard for some strange reason, allow me to explain. Originally, we were going to just do a normal run in the Emerald Forest so that our newest member could get acquainted with us and how we do things." She stated while directing the group's attention to Jaune.

Realizing that everyone's attention was now squarely focused on him, Jaune suddenly felt a bit nervous. "Umm, hello everyone, it's good to see you again." He managed to say, earning him a quick nod of acknowledgement from each of his fellow guild members and a bright smile from Pyrrha who had been standing at attention beside him.

To Jaune's relief his pink clad leader began to speak once again, bringing everyone's attention back on her. "As I was saying, with the latest patch things have changed. We now have new content waiting for us to take on. And since we would be taking on the Emerald Forest regardless, I figured we may as well kill two birds with one stone."

"Question!" Ruby declared as she threw her hand up.

"Go for it, Red." Nora replied.

"Well from what I've heard so far, barely anyone has even managed to encounter the boss yet, let alone beat it. Do we even have a plan?" The red cloaked gunslinger inquired.

Nora chuckled lightly before answering. "That we do, Red. You see, me and our local lore junkie Black Cat spent a good chunk of last night and this morning sifting through forum threads, youtube videos, and official articles to figure this all out. And from what we have managed to gathered so far, it would seem that the boss doesn't automatically spawn upon entering the dungeon."

"So what does that mean? Because I hope you're not saying it's a rare boss or something. You do know that Ruby and I have plans later, right? We don't have time to run this dungeon over and over again until it spawns." Yang stated.

Nora shook her head to dismiss her friend's concerns. "No, there's no need to worry about that. The boss itself doesn't seem to be a rare one at all. Nor does it seem to be a free roaming boss. Rather, it would seem that it's the type of boss that requires a few conditions to be met in order for it to spawn. So as long as we meet those conditions, the boss should spawn one-hundred percent of the time." She explained.

"Well, that's all well and good, but do we know what those conditions are?" Pyrrha was the one to ask this time.

Nora seemed to have been waiting for this question, since in response to it her eyes took on a slightly playful if not sinister gleam. "That's simple, my dear. Out of all the cases we found in which the boss had actually appeared, there was only one factor that was always the same. So all we need to do is replicate that. And in order to do that, we must complete Players and Pieces."

A moment after Nora had finished speaking, Pyrrha had looked confused, but slowly the confusion crumbled and something else took it's place. Her eyes widened in what appeared to be horrified realization. "No way, you want us to do that!? You've got to be kidding me!?" She half shouted half gasped. Nora however clearly seemed to have been expecting this reaction and only responded with a shrug and a laugh.

Meanwhile Jaune still found himself completely lost. He wasn't sure what Nora was talking about, and if it was getting Pyrrha upset, he figured he should get informed. So seeking answers, he leaned a bit closer to the gloomy redhead who was now cupping her head in her hands and groaning to whisper in her ear. "Hey Pyrrha, are you alright?" He asked.

Hearing Jaune's inquiry, Pyrrha let out a sigh as she collected herself and giving a proper response. "Thanks for the concern, but I'm fine. I just had a bit of a long night and am feeling a little worn out. If I'd known this little venture was going to become something this intense, then I might've just stayed in bed." She complained.

Jaune suddenly felt uneasy all over again. Anything that could make somebody as skilled and experienced as Pyrrha want to just pack it in couldn't be very pleasant. Especially for somebody that had practically no idea what they were doing, much like himself. "Is it that bad? Come on spill, what's the big deal with this Players and Pieces thing?"

"It's an achievement." Pyrrha replied dryly.

"It's an achievement?" Jaune posed the words like a question. Of course he knew full well what an achievement was. After all, he did consider himself a bit of a gamer. However, he didn't really understand what an achievement had to do with this situation. "Sorry, I'm a bit confused. I thought we were after a boss, not an achievement. Am I wrong?" He inquired.

"You would be correct in the assumption that the boss is our main objective. It's not the achievement itself that's important. Rather, it's just a means to an end. In other words, if what Nora said is true. the conditions we are required to meet in order to make the boss spawn and the conditions required to unlock the achievement are one and the same." Pyrrha explained.

Jaune gave Pyrrha a small nod to show he understood. "Alright, so what's the problem? Is this achievement difficult to unlock?" He asked.

Pyrrha let out a mirthless laugh before responding. "Difficult doesn't begin to describe this. More like heinous or evil incarnate might be more fitting. It's an achievement that was deemed so hard to get, that it took two whole months after it was released before anyone had managed to get it. And it was so bad in fact that Winter Entertainment considered nerfing the requirements to make it more reasonable. Unfortunately, they decided against the nerf. After all, achievements are more valuable if you have to really work for them, right? Anyway, things are a bit different now. With how many higher level dungeons and items having been released since then, the Emerald Forest and it's achievements have become a fair bit easier to handle."

"I see, so what is it all about? How do we get the achievement?" Jaune asked.

"Well, it's called Players and Pieces for two reasons. One, because it requires everything to be in the right place at the right time to pull off. And two because there is a group of chess pieces scattered throughout the dungeon that you need to collect before you can complete it. They are important because when you gather the chess pieces together, it ups the difficulty of the dungeon. This is good since in turn it gives the party a better chance at good loot, and you are required to have them all active for the achievement. However, there's another step to this. In order to unlock the achievement, you need to defeat the second and the third boss within five minutes of each other. And to top it all off, if your party wipes at any point, the chess pieces will scatter again. In short, it's a massive pain!" Pyrrha ranted.

Jaune couldn't help but wince. "That certainly sounds like a headache. How are we going to pull that off? Do we have a plan?"

Pyrrha looked like she was about to answer when the sound of Nora's ever cheerful voice cut through. "Okay, it's time to discuss our battle strategy, so everyone gather round!" She said as she motioned for everyone to come closer. Jaune and Pyrrha simply shrugged at one another before joining the group. At this time, Nora had her interface open and was scrolling through it to find and select a tab titled 3D Maps. Then after a few more clicks, a small image appeared in her hand which she then threw out to expand into a holographic model of the Emerald Forest.

"Wow, what did she just do? I didn't know that was a feature in this game!" Jaune exclaimed.

"That's because it isn't, at least not naturally. What Nora is using is called ROR Holo-Mapping and it's something like a mod." Pyrrha explains.

"A mod, you mean like third party software? Isn't that bad? I thought you said that sort of stuff was prohibited by the terms of use agreement." He inquired.

Pyrrha shrugged. "Yes, that is technically true. Use of any third party software is normally frowned upon, especially if it gives you any kind of unfair advantage. However, there does happen to be a few exceptions to this rule. Third party software that only affects visual appearance and the player interface itself such as ROR Holo-Mapping along with a few other quest tracker programs are mostly overlooked. While they are still against the terms of use agreement, they aren't considered unfair or disruptive, so players aren't penalized for making use of them."

"I guess that's nice of them." Jaune mused and Pyrrha nodded in agreement before they both returned their attention to Nora who was going into their battle strategy.

"I know for most of you this isn't going to be your first rodeo. However, it has been a long time since any of us have tried for this achievement. And by the look of it, some of you may still be suffering PDSD from the last time we did it." Nora said while shooting Pyrrha a cheeky grin. Pyrrha just puffed her cheeks up in a pout and looked away. "With that in mind, I figured we should all go over the plan just to make sure we're all on the same page."

"Get on with it already!" Yang goaded.

Nora just rolled her eyes and went on. "Now, if I could get you all to observe the map." She said, directing their attention to a small gateway at the far southern end of the map. "This is the entrance to the Dungeon and where we're currently standing." Yang said something to the effect of stating the oblivious, but Nora ignored her and moved on. "And directly north of us, in the center of the map, is the location of the first boss. Alpha of the Doom Pack, he is a beast type boss so that means he's a heavy hitter but doesn't take hits very well either. And more importantly, he tends to summon wolf minions to fight along with him. The number of wolf minions he summons increases as the fight goes on, so we will need to end it as quickly as possible. With that in mind, we will need to make sure we have a dedicated tank for both the boss and his minions. Pyrrha, I was thinking you would be on boss duty. Is that alright with you?"

"Yeah, that should be fine." Pyrrha agreed.

"Good, now as for the minions." She said as she glanced over her party. And after a moment of deliberation, her eyes came to a stop on Jaune. "Hmm, how about you, Jaunny boy? Think you can keep the wolves off our backs?" She inquired.

"Oh, ah, what did you have in mind? Did you just want me to kite them?" Jaune asked nervously.

"Yep, think you can handle that?"

Jaune took a moment to glance over a Pyrrha who gave him a nod and an encouraging smile. He knew he had to do this. "Sure, what's the worst that could happen?" He posed this question like a joke, but it didn't make him feel like laughing.

Nora was silent for a moment before she finally gave him a nod. "Good, I will be counting on you then." That line made Jaune wince, but if Nora had noticed his uncertainty she at least didn't call him on it.

"Anyway, while we're engaging the boss, I will need my Assassins to scout ahead. Black Cat, you take the Western path and Jade you can take the East." She told the two Assassins in question while motioning towards a set of two paths branching out to the north-west and north-east of the Alpha boss's area.

"Wait, while we're fighting the boss? Why are we splitting the party during a boss fight? Wouldn't it be easier to fight the boss together then send them ahead afterward?" Jaune inquired.

Jaune's question caused everyone to turn and look at him again, and for a moment he wondered if he might have screwed up. However, his fears were dispelled when Nora shot him a smile that suggested she was glad he asked. "Good question, Jaunny Boy. It's quite simple, really. It will take a good amount of time to gather up all the relics and get them into position. About as much time as it will take for us to defeat this boss. And the fact is that even if we kept the Assassins with us, they wouldn't do much good in this fight."

This statement caught Juane's attention, so he decided to inquire further. "Wouldn't do much good? Why is that?"

"Well think about it, the Alpha is a beast type boss that specializes in spawning mobs of enemies. As a beast type, he naturally has very high melee damage. That makes it very dangerous to get in close combat with him if you're not equipped with heavy armor. On top of that, he has a special ability that allows him to sense invisible enemies, so sneaking up on him isn't an option. And lastly, Assassins specialize in doing high single target damage. And that's usually great for boss encounters. However in this fight, we need to keep ourselves from being overwhelmed by his minions and so area of effect damage is way more useful. On top of that, Assassins are able to move through most areas undetected, making them well suited to scouting. So in short, it would be a much better use of our time and resources to send the Assassins ahead of us." Nora explained.

"Oh, I think I get it. That does make a lot of sense." Jaune declared.

"And besides, we should check to make sure the Reaper isn't there, right Nora." Black Cat chimed in.

"Oh right, the Reaper! I almost forgot about her! Good call, Cat! It would be really bad news if we ran into her without being prepared!" Nora exclaimed.

"The Reaper? Who's the Reaper?" Jaune asked his red haired combat instructor.

"Oh, I guess you wouldn't know about her? The Reaper is a rare boss that sometimes spawns in a few different dungeons. Though her level is dependent on the dungeon you encounter her in, she is almost always very challenging. In most cases, she is actually the hardest boss in the dungeon. However, she only spawns in on heroic difficulty and even then it's rare. However, this achievement is hard enough, the last thing we need is another obstacle." Pyrrha explained.

Jaune nodded in agreement. "Yeah, this sounds like it's going to be tough enough as it is. So I hope we don't have to deal with this Reaper."

Meanwhile, Nora had already gone back to explaining their plans. "Now then, once we take out the Alpha and the Relics are in position, we will be able to move onto the second stage. This is the stage in which we will be completing the achievement. This means that we will need to defeat both the Eastern boss, Nevermore the Black Wing and the Western boss, Dreadscale the Golden Claw within five minutes of each other. It can be quite a daunting task, but there are two different ways we could do this. Method number one, we split the party into two different groups, then each of these groups head to a different boss and we fight them completely separately." She said while motioning to the bosses respective sides of the map.

Jaune found himself nodding along until Pyrrha cut in. "However, this isn't the method we will be using, is it?" Pyrrha inquired.

Nora chuckled lightly as she answered. "Nope, and you know why that is, Pyrrha?"

Pyrrha nodded before answering. "Yes, it's because we only have one healer. Miss Snow Angel." She said while glancing over at the white clad Summoner. The girl in question gave a nod, but didn't say anything on the matter.

"That's right! I wouldn't expect anything less from our Pyrrha!" Nora cheered before returning attention to the map. "You see, method one requires both teams to be completely self sustaining. This means we would need at least two tanks to hold the bosses at bay and two healers to keep the party alive. However, we're currently short on manpower and only have one Healer. So while method one might work for some groups, it's not going to work for us."

"So method two it is then, the only question now would be what you had in mind?" Jaune asked in a tone that suggested his curiosity had now been peaked.

#### To Be Continued...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that was a thing wasn't it? Not quite as intense as next chapter will be but its meant more as a set up chapter. I tried to really push the MMO theme in this one. Most of the time it feels tacked on but I wanted to make sure this story felt like a functioning game world while still maintaining a sense of importance.
> 
> Oh and yes I realize that their raid group only has 9 members. The max raid group is 10 they just don't have anyone else to run it with.
> 
> Anyway if you have any thoughts you want to share or questions you want to ask feel free.


	9. ROR Part 9: The Emerald Forest Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The raid is progressing steadily and while Jaune is feeling apprehension, Nora is just hitting her stride.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Yep, its that time again. Not the most timely release I have had since I planned for it to come out two days ago, but writing is hard lol. Seriously, it is almost as hard as reading. I don't know how you guys get through a chapter. Do you skim through a lot of it? Heck I doubt you even bother to read these notes, I could probably spoil the ending for this series right now and you would never even no. And trust me it is going to be crazy, what with Roman (Censored) and Pyrrha getting (Censored). Then when Lich Lord (Censored).
> 
> By the way, in case any of you were wondering, this is a chart of all the Classes in ROR and their possible Sub Classes. Thought it might come in handy for the chapters to come.
> 
> Core Class: Warrior
> 
> Subclass: Guardian (Defensive), Swordmaster (Balanced), Berserker (Offensive), Monk (Utility).
> 
> Core Class: Mage
> 
> Subclass: Elemental (Offensive), Summoner (Balanced), Cleric (Utility).
> 
> Core Class: Gunslinger
> 
> Subclass: Heavy (Defensive), Duelist (Balanced), Marksmen (Offensive).
> 
> Core Class: Assassin
> 
> Subclass: Trickster (Balanced), Archer (Offensive), Ninja (Utility).
> 
> Proof reader: MartunaMajor
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY.

#### Emerald Forest Dungeon Entrance

“Alright does everyone understand the plan and what they are meant to do?” Nora asked cheerfully as she gazed out over her comrades who were all giving her nods of agreement. However, her eyes stalled for a moment on the one person who was not nodding, Jaune of the Arc.

Nora had been paying extra close attention to Jaune since he had joined to make sure he was on the up and up, not that she didn’t trust Pyrrha’s judgment but they didn’t have time to waste on charity cases. And they weren’t so desperate to fill openings in their ranks to allow just anyone into their inner circle. She needed to know that this Jaune guy was ready to uphold the Violet Crusades name. With that said, he hadn’t given Nora any reason to doubt him. They had only first met a few days ago and he was a merely a level 12 at the time, but now he was closing in on level 20. Such a jump in such a short amount of time was nothing short of impressive. Just grinding it out in any old questing area wouldn’t work out very well. To pull that off, you would need to know where to go and what quest chains to follow for the fastest experience rates. And even then it would require you to dedicate several hours a day to pull it off.

With all that said however, what really matter to her wasn’t what level Jaune was or even what gear he had. No, what really mattered were his skills as a player and who he was as a person. After all, your character’s stats could only carry you so far. If he couldn’t take instructions and work well as a part of their team, then he wouldn’t be of any use to them moving forward. She was hopeful that this raid could give her some idea about what she could expect from the boy. Though she knew that Jaune was still slightly under leveled for this raid, as such was trying to keep her expectations low for now. That meant that as long as Jaune wasn’t completely useless, he could get a passing grade in her book.

With that though finished Nora noticed that her guildmates ready and raring to go. Not wanting to keep them waiting, she shot them a wide smile before she turned towards the dungeon entrance while pulling her own weapon free from her back and bringing it to the ready. “Violet Crusaders, are you ready for this?!” She roared and before her guildmates could manage a response Nora spoke again. “Time’s up, let’s do this!” She cheered before charging forward and disappearing into the tree line.

All the other guild members seemed slightly caught off guard by Nora’s antics. Each sharing looks with one another before quickly shrugging it off as just Nora being Nora. Then with the exception of Jaune and Pyrrha, the crusaders all rushed into the forest to catch up to their guild leader, all the while letting out equally fierce battle cries of their own. Jaune, however, seemed to be frozen in place like a statue. A shocked expression chiseled on his face. Jaune’s expression didn’t go unnoticed by his red haired companion Pyrrha, however. She stepped closer to the blond statue in order to ascertain the cause. “Jaune, are you alright?” She whispered to him.

Jaune didn’t respond right away, but his friend’s words did seem to shake him out of his stupor. Then after taking a quick moment to gather himself, he replied. “Yeah, sorry about that, just a little nervous is all. I don’t want to screw this up, you know?” He explained.

This prompted Pyrrha to give Jaune a reassuring smile and a pat on the shoulder. “Don’t worry Jaune, you will do fine. This is what we have been practicing for, after all.”

“Yeah, I know, but do you really think I’m ready for this?” Jaune asked in a skeptical tone.

“It is hard to say for sure.” Pyrrha declared with a shrug before she stepped away from Jaune and towards the forest, only turning around once she reached the forest edge. “However, I know a way to find out.” She stated as she reach a hand out towards Jaune. This time Jaune didn’t hesitate, he simply returned his friend’s smile and rushed forward to join her.

///////////////////////////////////////////////////

#### Emerald Forest Dungeon Alpha Wing

It seemed that the long strategy meeting had made the Crusaders more than a little stir crazy, and now that it was finally over, Nora and the gang were very eager to get this thing under way. And because of this, it hadn’t taken them much time at all to make their way through the dungeon’s entrance and into the first proper zone, an open winding area known simply as the Alpha Wing.

As the group stepped out of the tree line and into the grassy trail that made up the Alpha Wing, Jaune could see the eyes of his guildmates light up with a mix of excitement and recognition. And he watched them as they fell into what he could only imagine were old habits. They began to spread out and Pyrrha pulled him forward so they could create a loose battle formation. They currently had him along with the rest of the warrior’s up front, while the Assassins covered the flanks and their single Mage and Gunslinger brought up the rear.

It was clear that the Crusaders had all been here before and at least had some idea what they were doing. Jaune for his part, however, he just tried to follow Pyrrha’s lead and act like he wasn’t as uncertain as he really was. Of course it wasn’t all an act, he certainly was excited about the prospect of conquering this dungeon, but he just didn’t quite share the same enthusiasm as his guildmates. And his uncertainty was largely due to the plan that Nora had laid out only moments ago.

Nora’s plan was simple enough, at least on paper. The idea was that after they made it past the Alpha, the party would split up temporarily. One group which would consist of Nora, Jade Lotus, Snow Angel, and himself would go after Dreadscale the Golden Claw, while at the same time the second group consisting of Pyrrha, Yellow Dragon, Little Red, and Monkey King would head for the lair of Nevermore the Black Wing. Black Cat on the other hand would go ahead of them to scout the ruins located around the center of the map, because apparently the Reaper had a chance to spawn there and they wanted to make sure it was clear for the next stage of the plan.

Once each group was in position and Black Cat gives the go ahead, they would have their tank kite their respective bosses towards the ruins. And if they managed that, they would be able to regroup and engage both bosses at once with the whole party together. That way, all the party members would be in range of their single healers spells and they would easily be able to move the tanks and the damage dealing characters back and forth between the bosses to insure they died around the same time.

Jaune had to admit, this plan seemed fairly solid. If properly executed, he was sure that it would work out rather well, but it had one possibly fatal flaw in its design. The flaw in question being him and the fact that he was acting as one of their tanks. As a tank, that meant he would be an essential part of this plan and the key to its success, or more likely responsible for its failure, if or rather when he inevitably screwed it up. Needless to say, Jaune was feeling the pressure, and he had never fared well under pressure.

At least the tranquil sounds and beautiful scenery of the forest were offering him some distraction from his doubts. He hadn’t been quite sure what to expect when he came here, but the Emerald Forest was anything but what most would call a typical dungeon. When most normally tried to picture a dungeon, their first thought would be of a dark, damp, and claustrophobia inducing underground passage crammed to the brim with all manner of horrific beasts and torture equipment. And while ROR certainly did have its fair share of such places, the Emerald Forest couldn’t have been further removed from that stereotype without it ceasing to be a dungeon all together.

As Jaune took in all the sights and sounds of the forest, he couldn’t help but think about how incredible VR really was. VR hadn’t even become a mainstream technology until a few years ago, but it had already come so far. He could feel the leaves crunching under his boots, he could hear the sounds of birds chirping in the trees and a running river in the distance, and he could see all the majesty of nature in every direction. All the raiding videos he had watched in preparation for this event just didn’t do the experience justice. Seeing this place through a normal computer screen could never compete with the real thing. And best of it all was that they hadn’t even run into any monster to ruin it.

“First mob up ahead!” Yang announced, snapping Jaune out of his spiritual journey just in time to see a pack of huge wolves with dark black fur come into view. Once he saw them, Jaune cursed under his breath for jinxing himself and readied himself for the battle ahead.

“Tanks, move up! Jaune, take the group on the left, Pyrrha you get the one on the right!” Nora commanded as she motioned for her tanks to move forward. “Everyone else pick out your targets and go wild!” She roared as she hoisted up her hammer and followed her tank’s lead towards the enemy.

“Roger!” The group declared as they began their attack.

As they closed the distance between the monsters, Nora activated her warrior ability to leap up into the air and drilled her maul a few times before falling back down towards the ground. “Feel the wrath of Nora Valkyrie!” She roared as the head of her hammer made contact with the head of one of the wolves. Upon contact, a massive critical hit marker popped up before the wolf’s whole health bar seemed to disappear along with the top half of the beast’s skull.

“She killed it in one hit!?” Jaune asked himself as his mouth feel agape.

Nora’s attack power had to have been insanely high to pull something like that off. Even if this was a lower tier dungeon, killing a raid monster in one blow was quite impressive and something he hadn’t ever seen before. Even Pyrrha’s more flashy attacks didn’t pack quite that much of a punch.

Jaune could only assume Nora’s strength had something to do with her being a Berserker. He would have put more thought into this thought, but he was broken from his trance when he heard his comrades shouting for their leader. They were issuing the pink clad hammer wielder warnings about being too careless and that she should stop running ahead on her own.

That’s when Jaune decided to return his gaze to the pink warrior to realize that she had just landed right in the middle of the whole mob and the surviving monsters were now trying to swarm her from every direction. If Nora was worried about being at the center of the beast’s attention, she certainly didn’t show it. The way she cheered with manic glee as she spun her body out of the path of each of their attacks while still managing to dish out a few more blows of her own was a sight to behold. And Jaune did note however that none of her follow up attacks seemed to pack nearly as much force as her first one, even when they landed a critical blow.

“Meteor Strike!” Jaune heard Pyrrha call out from some place nearby. Assuming that her group had just engaged their own set of enemies, Jaune glanced away from the battle in front of him to search out his red haired companion. 

Before Jaune could catch sight of Pyrrha and the rest of the party, he heard a low whistle coming from Nora’s position and his attention snapped back to his own battle just in time to see Nora in the middle of one of her deadly pirouettes. Nora was still fighting but she didn’t seem focused on the monsters, as she spun to avoid an enemy attack, Jaune caught a glimpse of the berserker’s eyes. They seemed to be staring right at him, almost expectantly. If that wasn’t odd enough, the fight dragged on for several more seconds, and more monsters began to close in around her, yet Nora had stopped making counter attacks and didn’t seem interested in fleeing. She just stared at him, like she was waiting for something.

“Oh.” Jaune said when he realized his error and called out to his guild leader. “Crap, Nora, hold on I’m coming!” Jaune shouted as he broke into a sprint, the whole way smacking his sword against his shield to activate his taunt ability. “I’m over here you stupid mongrels! Come and get a taste of this!” He declared more for effect than anything else, but it seemed to work well enough. Almost instantly the taunt took effect, and caused the mass of fur and hate assaulting Nora to lose interest in the Berserker and begin a rampaging charge in Jaune’s direction.

“Well that seemed to get their attention.” Jaune thought as he watched the wolves barrel closer. That is when another thought came to the forefront of his mind. “Wait, what am I supposed to do now?” After taking a moment to consider his options and coming back with nothing, he let his instincts kick in and braced for impact. “Not the face!” He whimpered as he raised his shield and activated one of his defensive abilities in hopes it would allow him to weather the first blow.

The first blow coming in the form of one of the wolves using its powerful hind legs to kick up off the ground and practically throw itself into Jaune’s shield. Not even a second later and the beast colliding with the shield with a heavy thud and it didn’t stop there. It quickly begun to claw and bite at the metal in a furious attempt to find purchase in Jaune’s digital flesh, but luckily for the blond guardian, he was always just out of the beast’s reach.

Jaune’s luck didn’t seem to want to hold out for very long though, since a moment later another wolf flanked around him on his right side and right past his guard. Jaune saw a dangerous gleam in the beast’s eyes as it sized him up. It looked at him as if it were about to enjoy a tasty meal and Jaune could see its muscles tensing as it prepared to leap at him, but didn’t get the chance.

The crack of a rifle rang out from somewhere directly behind Jaune. It was immediately followed by the sound of that same wolf being knocked off it’s feet and hitting the grassy ground below. The wolf had been shot in the head and the hit took a good sized chunk of its health in the process. Though the beast wasn’t dead quite yet. A problem that was quickly remedied as a result of three more quick consecutive shots to the creature’s chest.

Watching this happen, Jaune glanced back for only a brief moment to catch a glimpse of Little Red hoisting a large rifle with a smoking barrel and turning to say something he couldn’t quite make out to Snow Angel who was stood beside her. Snow Angel gave the red clad girl a quick nod as she began chanting some sort of incantation.

Before Jaune could figure out what Snow Angel was up to however, his attention was forced to return to the front, when another wolf cut around his left side. Jaune tried to leverage his shield in a way that would allow him to counter attack without allowing the first wolf through, but it proved unnecessary when the new opponent was promptly locked in place by an icy prison. Jaune was confused for a moment, but then he recognized it as a low level Mage spell, one that was meant to immobilize enemy players and monsters. Snow Angel must have been casting it when he saw her a moment ago.

Sensing an opportunity, Jaune activated his shield slam ability, allowing him to knock back the beast that was still clawing at his shield, leaving it momentarily dazed. Then with it out of his way he spun around with his sword in hand and began hacking away at the frozen wolf on his left. The beast’s health was far larger than he was used to, but with it unable to even try to defend itself, he found that he was putting a good dent into it with every swing. After about six strikes, the wolf’s health was nearing the red zone, and Jaune thrust forward to pierce his blade through its throat scoring the fatal critical blow.

With the wolf’s health completely depleted and its body still encased in icy, its body began to crack before it shattered into icy chunks of dark flesh that clattered across the grassy trail and being instantly forgotten. Now that he had defeated that wolf, Jaune set his sights back onto the wolf he had stunned a moment ago, and he did so just in time to see that it had recovered from its daze and was now charging back at him while letting out an angry snarl.

Seeing the beast coming, he did as Pyrrha had trained him to do for the last few days and he raised his shield back up and braced himself. However, an impact never came. Instead he was treated to the sight of a shadow passing over the wolf’s body a moment before its rampage was brought to a very abrupt and slightly gruesome end. The flat of a familiar hammer came crashing down on top of the beast’s back. Under the weight of the blow the beast just crumbled and before it could even think about returning to its feet, the hammer came back down once again to cave in its skull with a wet sounding crunch.

“Ah, broken already. Oh well, there will be more where they came from.” Nora declared cheerfully as she waved around her hammer as if she was trying to clean off the blood that had never stained it to begin with. And then her gaze once again met Jaune’s and she shot him a bright smile. “Not too bad, Jaunny boy. A little shaky at first, but you seem to know what you’re doing. I hope you can keep it up. After all, things are only going to get harder from here on in!” She told him before turning away and rushing back into the fray.

It was then that Jaune finally had a moment to breathe and take in the rest of the battle unfolding around him. Just as he had thought, there was a second group of beasts just a few paces ahead of them that Pyrrha and the other members of their party had already engaged. He could also make out what appeared to be a fresh impact crater in the ground at the center, or rather the epicenter of the melee. Jaune reasoned that a crater like that could only have been caused by Pyrrha’s ridicules Meteor Strike ability. And that it was a testament to the raid monsters durability that they were still alive after taking the brunt of such an attack. If only temporarily while The Yellow Dragon, Black Cat, Jade Lotus, Monkey King, and Pyrrha worked their way through the last of them.

Once the last of the monsters Jaune, Nora, Snow Angel, and Little Red fought had been vanquished, Jaune turned to watch as Nora broke away from them and rushed over to give aid to the five members of their group who had gone further ahead. It didn’t seem like they really needed the help, but Jaune didn’t feel like missing out on all the fun either, so he quickly gave chase.

From there the whole party continued to push their way further and further into the dungeon, encountering several more monster mobs along the way. And though Jaune did his best to help out where he could, for the most part his help wasn’t really all that necessary. Rather, the enemies were getting dispatched so quickly that it was about all he could do just to keep pace with his allies.

Of course Jaune didn’t do anything. While he had the chance, he made sure to watch his guildmates movements as carefully as he could. He took note of what kind of fighting styles they employed, how they moved to avoid or divert the enemy’s attacks, and when and how they used their abilities.

Much to Jaune’s surprise, just about every member of his party had their own unique way of fighting. Even Nora and Yellow Dragon who he figured would be similar due to them both sharing the same main and sub class, fought very differently from each other. Of course that was likely due to the vastly different weapon choices of the two. While Nora used a massive War Maul to bludgeon her opponents to death, Yang seemed to prefer an even more hands on approach and so she used a set of golden claw gauntlets to carve her way through her enemies.

Style aside however, he did discover that there was a few things that just about all of Jaune’s party members had in common. That was in the way they moved. Their movements were incredibly fluid, with all the poise and grace of professional acrobats, and yet their strikes were still as swift and deadly as navy seals. It was clear that they knew what they were doing, and that they were good at doing it. And that made him wonder, even ignoring level and gear, could he ever actually match any of them in the skill department? Right now if he had to wager a guess, it would be a big fat no. They barely even seemed human when they fought, how could he match that? Of course, if he were to ask Pyrrha for her opinion on the matter, he was sure the girl would give him nothing but kind words of encouragement. It wasn’t that he didn’t appreciate everything that the girl had been doing for him, but he just didn’t really understand why she was trying so hard to help him succeed when she clearly didn’t need him.

Really when Jaune thought about it, the only thing he really knew with any certainty was that he could never match Nora’s sheer brutality. And it wasn’t solely because of his lack of ability either, but rather the fact that he just didn’t have the stomach for it.

On more than one occasion since Jaune and his group had entered the forest, he found himself actually wincing just from the sight of Nora striking down an enemy. Sure one could argue that these wolves were nothing more than a collection of pixels and a few lines of code, but the same could have be said for their friend Penny.

Jaune could never imagine anyone their guild, especially Nora, batting around Penny like a rag doll. Though he did suppose it still wasn’t the same. The wolves were kind of evil and most definitely wanted to rip his face off, but they were just programmed that way so it’s not their fault. Penny was also much more lifelike than any other NPC Jaune had encountered in ROR so far. Based on what everyone had told him, that was because she was supposedly the prototype for the new AI software that would be getting implemented soon. He didn’t have all the details, but he had heard a lot of NPCs and monsters would be affected by the change. And the thought that these wolves would become intelligent made it kind of hard to watch them be so thoroughly pummeled to death. “It’s at times like these that I think VR may have gotten a bit too realistic.”

////////////////////////////////////////////

#### Alpha Wing: Path of the Precursors

Another monster had just fallen to Nora’s hammer, if memory served it was part of the second to last patrol before reaching the first boss. It wouldn’t be long now, Nora could feel it. Nora knew because she was having Fun. It wasn’t just a little bit of fun either. Her throat was becoming hoarse from her cries of joy and manic laughter alone. Her real physical arms were beginning to ache from the countless times she had mimed swing her digital hammer. And she didn’t care because she was enjoying herself far too much for that.

The reason for Nora’s elation was easy enough to guess. She was finally raiding again and that made her feel like the warrior she knew she was meant to be. Even though it hadn’t been that long since the four traitors had left her, it still felt like it had been a life time since she was able to cut loose like this.

Sure the Emerald Forest was just a low tier dungeon with crappy drops that her guild would normally never bother with at this point in the game, but today was different. This dungeon was just the warm up, the appetizer if you will, and once she reached the end, the main dish would be waiting for her.

When Nora really thought about it, everything started to go downhill for her once her and her Crusaders had defeated Dagannoth for the first time. Sure at first it was great, they were on top of the world, and they felt like they could do anything. Perhaps that was the problem all along. They had reached the top of the mountain. Without being able to climb any higher, there was really only one direction left for them to go after that point. Now they were practically in free fall, but it wouldn’t be for much longer. There was finally a new summit to scale, this was the new challenge that she, no all of them, had been craving all this time and it was finally in their grasp.

Nora just hoped that this new boss wouldn’t disappoint her. She more than had her fill with disappointment lately. However, she still didn’t know all that much about this boss. She’d heard that it was strong, which was a good sign, but she needed more than that to go off of. After all, there were still many players who claimed Dagannoth to be nearly impossible and were calling for him to be nerfed. “Noobs, am I right?” She thought to herself.

In search of more information, Nora had dug deep into the forums and managed to find a few horror stories about experienced raiding parties getting wiped out over and over again at the hands of the new boss. Or at least she thinks that was what they were about. She really skimmed through them to avoid spoiling herself, but the thought that the boss could be that challenging made Nora’s warrior blood come to a boil.

She had intentionally tried to keep herself from learning too much about the boss’s stages and attack patterns. After all, what fun would it be if she already knew how to beat it before she even got to it? Besides, it didn’t matter how tough this boss was, her Crusaders would win. It didn’t matter if they were down a member, and it certainly didn’t matter that they had to carry an under leveled player either. A handicap would just add to the fun, that is what it means to be the best, and nothing was going to stop her.

 **Private Message From Jade Lotus:** “Nora, I’ve just detected a few traps up ahead of us.”

Okay, maybe something could stop Nora. Something she had a habit of forgetting about is that this dungeon was notorious for its traps. They were randomly generated and could spawn in several locations spread throughout the map. Some of them were even invisible to the naked eye and could kill instantly when activated, so when this dungeon first came out it was considered essential to have a character with trap detection in your party to make it through. Luckily their local Assassin/Trickster was just the girl for the job.

“Halt men!” Nora shouted as she suddenly came to a stop in a small clearing with a set of statues circling the perimeter. As she did so, she put her fist up in the air to signal the rest to do the same.

“What’s up, Nora?” Pyrrha asked as her and the new guy approached.

“Traps, Jade spotted them.” Nora said with a shrug. Then she turned towards their second Assassin and called out to her. “Blake, we got traps, go help Jade disarm them!” She commanded.

“Roger!” Black Cat replied before rushing forward to join Jade who was examining one of the statues on the far end of the clearing.

After about a minute of the two working on it, another message appeared in Nora’s inbox.

 **Private Message From Jade Lotus:** “Looks like this is a magical trap, the guardian type.”

Nora sighed in frustration before sending a quick reply, telling Jade to hold tight. Then she turned towards Snow Angel, who was currently leaned up against a tree and looking about as bored as Nora felt. “Snow Angel, it’s a guardian trap. That means you’re up, princess!”

“Fine, but don’t call me princess.” Snow Angel retorted as she pushed herself up off the tree.

“Hey, don’t sass your guild leader! Now snap to it before I decide to demote you to bar wench, princess.” Nora shot back causing Snow Angel to scoff. Though the girl had her face obscured by her full face helmet that she always wears, Nora could tell that she was rolling her eyes. However, the white clad spell caster made no further arguments and went to aid her companions.

Then Nora heard the sound of Pyrrha giggling beside her and she turned to face the golden gladiator. “You find something amusing?” She inquired.

“You seem to be having fun.” Pyrrha stated while continuing to giggle.

“Yeah, so what if I am?” Nora asked with a slight pout.

“I’m not making fun of you, Nora.” Pyrrha told the pink clad Berserker, causing her to fix Pyrrha with a skeptical look. “I’m glad Nora, seriously, frowns just don’t suit you.” She explained while giving her leader a warm smile.

That gave Nora pause. She wasn’t aware that she was being so obvious, at least when it came to her recent dissatisfaction. Though she supposed that she shouldn’t be too surprised, this was Pyrrha after all. Nora had always felt like Pyrrha had a knack for reading people, hence the reason why Nora decided to trust the new guy. Of course, it helps that Pyrrha is practically her BFF. The only competition she really has for the slot is Ren, but it’s kind of hard to compete with him. After all, Ren made her pancakes in the mornings.

“Yeah I am, thanks Pyrrha.” Nora finally replied as she tried to return her friend’s smile. Then she looked back towards the group of trap diffusers who were still fiddling with the contraption. Losing her patience, she stomped over to them. “Hey what’s taking so long you guys!?”

Jade and Blake shrugged as they directed Nora’s attention to Snow Angel who was currently interacting with some sort of 3D cube puzzle that she didn’t recognize. The puzzle in question kind of resembled an oversized rubik’s cube. Only this cube was all one color, a light shade of blue, and it seemed to be suspended in mid air by some sort of magical force.

Sensing Nora’s presence beside her, Snow Angel let out a sigh. “This puzzle is new. It must have been patched in recently, so I don’t know the solution just yet, but I feel like I’m getting closer. So if you could just give me some room, I will have this trap deactivated in no time.”

“Oh, so it’s new? Well that would explain why I don’t recognize it either.” Nora stated before she took another look at the trap before them. Just as Jade had stated, it was a guardian trap. And to be clear that didn’t mean it was designed to stop Guardian characters. Rather it was more of an alarm type trap. Unlike most traps that would impale you on spikes or pump you full of poison darts, alarm traps just summoned monsters when triggered. Though, the monsters summoned by these traps were normally either large number, or of mini-boss level in strength. Which would be a problem for a normal party, but it wouldn’t be anything they couldn’t handle, and that gave her an idea. “You know, there is another way to get through this trap?” She asked.

This caused Snow Angel to stop what she was doing and fix Nora with a glare. “Nora, no!”

It was too late however, as Nora had already jumped forward into the traps field of effect causing the puzzle cube in Snow Angel’s hand to turn red before vanishing. Then a moment later and the space around them began to warp as a phantasmal being sprang forth from the void and right into one of the many statues surrounding the area. Once inside, the statue seemed to spring to life, standing up to tower over everyone in the party.

“Oh wow, this one is new as well! This might just be fun!” Nora cheered as she gazed up at the imposing figure before them.

“Sometimes, I hate you Nora!” Snow Angel hissed.


	10. ROR Part 10: The Emerald Forest Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Golems be tripping.

**Alpha Wing: Path of the Precursors**

Jaune wasn’t really sure what to expect when he saw Nora marching past Snow Angel and straight into the area where the magical trap was supposedly set. The first actual thought he was able to come up with was that perhaps the trap had already been deactivated and that she was testing it, but that theory went out the window the moment Snow Angel snapped at the girl.

Then not a moment later a portal of some kind appeared in the space above Nora and a strange specter like creature flew out of it and right into a stone statue. After watching the specter phase into the statue and disappear, the statue began to move and stood up to tower over them. He also half expected for Nora to say it was all a big mistake and apologize. So when she cheered gleefully, Jaune had a terrifying realization. He realized that Nora had not only set the trap off, but she had done so intentionally.

Jaune just couldn’t understand what kind of person would willingly walk into a booby trap like that on purpose. Though in retrospect, maybe he should have seen this coming. He may have only known his guild leader for a few days now, but basically every interaction he’s had with the girl so far has set off warning bells in his head. Sure Nora was a nice enough girl, but she was also completely crazy. So he should have at least been prepared for her to do something like this.

So thanks to Nora’s impatience, she was now locked in a staring contest with a stone golem nearly ten times her size. And if only because the golems lacked the facial features required for blinking, it seemed to be winning. Though, that fact didn’t appear to bother Nora in the slightest, rather it only seemed to make her more excited.

While showing a wicked grin, Nora twirled her maul around her body a few times before allowing it to rest on her shoulder and then she addressed the golem. “So, you’re only an Elite monster, huh? Well I guess you will just have to do for a warm up. Just try to entertain me for a little while, will you?” She declared as she took on a far more proper fighting stance.

“Try not to sound so disappointed.” Jaune muttered. Really he wasn’t sure what Nora was so disappointed about. A quick glance up at the golem’s display was all he needed to know that this wasn’t going to be easy. The monsters display read as: Geist, Guardian of the Forest; Level ?; Heroic Raid Elite Monster.

Jaune had actually heard of Elite Monsters before, but this was the first time seeing for himself. Based on what he knew, they were a special type of monster that would normally only appear inside of raid dungeons. Just like the dungeon they were in right now in fact. They were a kind sub-boss. Though, in most cases these types of sub-bosses were either completely optional or simply part of some other raid boss’s encounter, like a bodyguard or something similar. So while they were fairly tough on average, they weren’t usually on the same level as a real boss.

Though there was one thing Jaune found to be odd about this Elite Monster. Even despite the fact that the monster was in close proximity to his party, it didn’t seem to be making any move to attack them.

Normally when you got within a few feet of an aggressive monster, it would attack you right away. This one however was just looming over them menacingly. And it looked like Nora had gotten bored of waiting for the monster to attack her and relaxed her stance before addressing it. “Hey what’s the deal, you going to fight or what?” The pink cad warrior asked in an irritated tone.

Then after a moment of the golem remaining silent and motionless, Nora decided she was going to speed things along. “Don’t want to make the first move, huh? Scarred perhaps? Well don’t you worry big guy, being the benevolent queen that I am, I will give you a handicap. The first shot is free.” She taunted as she tapped the side of her face with her open palm and activated her taunt ability.

Nora’s taunt seemed to do the trick since the moment it was issued the golem finally snapped into motion. It moved at a speed that seemed nearly impossible for a creature of its size and weight. In a fluid motion, its armed was pulled back and then thrust forward with clear intent on striking the pink clad warrior just as she had instructed.

Nora however, made no effort to avoid or even block the incoming attack. Instead, her grin just widened as the stone limb slammed into her. The force of the blow was strong, so strong that it knocked Nora off her feet and sent the girl flying across the clearing before slamming into a tree with a bone popping thud.

“Ouch, that’s got to hurt.” Jaune wince as he watched the gruesome scene play out. Even though the amount of pain a person can experience in ROR was rather minuscule, even on the highest of settings, the fact was that you could still feel something. And the human brain was good at filling in the gaps from there. So he wasn’t surprised when Nora didn’t get back up right away, heck if Nora’s avatar had been made of flesh and blood instead of pixels, there was no doubt in his mind that such a blow would’ve killed her on the spot.

 

Jaune was surprised however, when Nora finally did get back up onto her feet and began dusting herself off. It wasn’t the action itself that caught him off guard, but rather the smug expression on her face and the fact that her health bar was still well over the halfway mark.

“That wasn’t too bad, it actually kind of tickled.” Nora mused as she hoisted up her maul and instantly broke into a sprint towards the golem.

The golem quickly mirrored Nora’s charge and began making its way towards the berserker. However, it was at that moment that the rest of the Crusaders decided to enter the fray. Weiss and Ruby, being the primary ranged fighters in their party, their attacks were among the first to land on the golem.

“Spirito del regno dei ghiacci, io ti invoco. Che tu cada sui miei nemici! Storm of shards!” Snow Angel chanted as she activated one of her elemental spell abilities and proceeded to bombard the golem with lance-sized shards of ice.

Snow Angel’s lances were primarily aimed towards the golem’s legs and upon impact, each lance would shatter and send out icy shrapnel in every direction before solidifying into a blanket of ice to slow the golem’s movements.

Meanwhile, Ruby was busying herself by taking pot shots at different places on the golem’s body. Though to the untrained eye, her shots may have seemed random and unfocused. However, they were actually just experimental prods. Each shot struck at different points of interest, such as its joints, chest, head, and basically anything else that stuck out as a possible weak point.

However, much to Ruby’s dismay, none of her attacks seemed to be doing much to the creature. “This thing is sturdy. I can’t find a weak point!” She declared.

“Keep trying, it has to have one somewh-“ Snow Angel had to stop and internally curse herself when she noticed that the golem had veered off course. This not only allowed the golem to avoid running straight into their maul wielding guild leader, making the girl in question curse and accuse the monster of cowardice, but it also put it on a direct course for Snow Angel’s current position.

“Watch out! You pulled agro!” Pyrrha warned her white clad spell caster before momentarily turning towards Jaune to address him. “We got to go help!” With that said she broke into a sprint to intercept the golem.

“I’m right behind you!” Jaune quickly announced as he followed his friend into the path of the golem.

With the long strides of the behemoth golem it didn’t take long before it was bearing down on Jaune and Pyrrha. However, it didn’t show any signs of stopping which meant that it was still focused on their healer. They couldn’t very well allow it to reach her, so they both activated their taunt abilities to pull its attention.

The golem looked disorientated for a brief moment as its attention was suddenly pulled away from the spell caster by Pyrrha only for it to be yanked from her not a minute later by Jaune. Figuring that it could just crush the both of them, the golem cocked its arm back and lowered its stance so that it could sweep the limb across the ground.

Seeing the attacking coming, Pyrrha readied her leap ability. “Incoming!” She issued a quick warning to Jaune before she jumped over the stone limb as it past.

“Wait, what?!” Jaune muttered before raising his shield in desperation. While his shield did take the brunt of the attack, it did little to defuse the weight or momentum behind, it causing him to be knocked half way across the clearing.

Jaune could hear Pyrrha calling out to him as he was sent flipping through the air, but he was more focused on his health bar which had just had a decent chunk ripped out of it. On top of that, fall damage was a thing in this game and he was well over the safe fall threshold. So if he didn’t come up with a landing strategy soon, he might find himself exiting this fight a bit early.

Luckily for Jaune, Jade must have noticed his distress and literally jumped into action, as a moment before Jaune would have impacted the ground, she seemed to appear out of nowhere to catch him in mid flight. Then she activated her Feather Fall ability to slow their descent and allow them both to land without taking any additional fall damage.

Once Jade had set Jaune back down on his own feet, he breathed a sigh of relief before addressing his savor. “Thanks Jade, I owe you one.”

Private Message From Jade Lotus: “Not a problem, though I would recommend that you should try avoiding this guy’s attack. Trust me, he is as strong as he looks and you won’t want to be too low for the next phase.”

“Yeah, I will try to do that.” Jaune replied awkwardly. “Wait, what do you mean by that?”

Jaune’s question went ignored as Jade’s focus shifted towards Snow Angel who was now only a few feet away from them, which really put into perspective how far he had flew. The girl in question was still reciting incantations and shifting between casting ice spells at the golem and healing spells at the other party members. Then Jaune could only assume that Jade had messaged her since she suddenly stopped and turned towards them. “What now Jade, new guy can’t wait his turn?” She inquired.

Jade just shrugged in response and motioned towards the space above Jaune’s head where other players would be able to see his health bar. After stealing a quick glance the spell caster quickly conceded and began reciting another incantation. “Spiriti della terra, io vi invoco. Donate le vostre essenze a questi mortali e concedete loro la vostra forza! Rejuvenation!”

Jaune waited patiently while Snow Angel recited these words. Though, he didn’t have much experience playing with casting classes in ROR, one thing he had learned about on his own was incantations. Of course they weren’t actually necessary to cast your spells. If they were, it would just be far too bothersome for most players to deal with while grinding levels. However, performing an incantation before casting a spell will amplify the spell’s effectiveness.

Also the words used to cast the incantation don’t even need to be anything specific. As long as the caster speaks while the spell is being cast, it will count. Though, there are many who like to put their own personal flavor into their incantations. And since Jaune couldn’t understand a single word Snow Angel was saying, he wagered she must have been one of them.

When Angel’s incantation ended, Jaune was enveloped in radiant green energy and he soon noticed that his health bar had been almost completely restored. On top of that, he also had a new buff place on him that would continue to heal him over time.

“Thanks Snow Angel, you really helped me out.” Jaune declared gratefully.

“Just doing my job, I am the healer after all.” Snow Angel stated before quickly turning away from Jaune and returning her focus to the battle. Then after an awkward moment or relative silence she spoke again. “Speaking of which, don’t you have a job to be doing?”

Snow Angel’s question caused a confused expression to take over Jaune’s face for the briefest of moments before realization struck him. “Oh, r-right!” He stuttered as he glanced back towards the center of the melee.

The golem was faring a lot worse since the last time he saw it, with its health bar now down to about fifty percent, and based on all the cracks beginning to form along its stone body it showed. It also wasn’t hard to guess the cause of all the damage either, because while he was distracted Black Cat and Yellow Dragon had made their move.

Black Cat was flipping and cartwheeling all around the golem like a trained acrobat, all the while unleashing a greatly varied series of different attacks and abilities. She blasted it with fireballs, she hit it with throwing knives, and even delivered a roundhouse kick to its jaw, but nothing seemed to be doing much damage to the goliath. Luckily that was mutual, because Pyrrha was doing a good job of holding its attention, and for each time the golem would actually direct an attack in Black Cat’s direction she would meanly vanish in a puff of smoke, only to reappear behind the beast with her daggers in its back.

Yellow Dragon on the other hand seemed to be doing a good job of laying the smack down on the golem. Where Black Cat was evasive and unpredictable, Yellow Dragon stayed true to her class and took the golem head on with brute force. With each swipe of her gilded claws, she would carve out deep gashes from the masonry that made up the golem’s body. And with each chunk of stone lost, a nice chunk of the golem’s health bar would go with it. However, not even Pyrrha could completely keep the golem’s attention with Yellow Dragon dealing so much damage, causing it to lash out at the yellow clad berserker.

Unlike the Assassin/Ninja Black Cat, warriors weren’t generally known for their maneuverability in combat, and Yellow Dragon was no expectation. She didn’t have nearly enough evasive abilities to reliably avoid being hit, and unlike Pyrrha and Jaune she couldn’t wield a shield to absorb the impacts either. Luckily as a Berserker, that wasn’t really a problem. With each hit she took she was able to hit back even harder. So as long as she could take a hit and not die, it was all good, and since their healer was doing their job, that wasn’t much of a problem either.

Aside from those two, Ruby was still sniping from afar and it seemed that the Monkey King had joined her and was focusing on keeping the team’s buffs in place. The golem for its part didn’t seem to be paying either of the two any mind.

Nora still had yet to reenter the fray. This was because of how difficult it was to actually block one of the golem’s strikes, forcing Pyrrha into a hit and run strategy, effectively kitting the golem all over the clearing.

Then there was Jade Lotus who had already caught up to the rest of the party and was engaging the golem. Jaune wasn’t sure how she had managed that. Just one minute she was right next to him, the next she was clear on the other side of the meadow, but he wasn’t going to question it. It was likely just an Assassin thing after all.

“I’m here guys!” Jaune declared with a slight pant in his voice as he finally managed to regroup with his party.

“About time, don’t tell me you got lost on the way!?” Yellow Dragon joked right before the golem slammed its stone fist down on top of her. Though, she took a fairly good chunk of damage from the blow, Pyrrha had acted fast and gave Yellow Dragon a defense buff just in time. And now that she was a little more than annoyed, she shoved the stone limb off of her and caused the body it was attached to to stumble backward. Then she activated her leap ability and sprang forward in an attempt to slam her fist into the golem’s face. However, the golem raised one of its arms up to block the blow, but the force proved too much and caused the limb to shatter into pieces.

Before the yellow clad berserker could do any more damage, the golem swatted her away with its one remaining good arm. Though, before it could do anything else, a manically gleeful voice called down to it from above. “I finally caught you!”

This caused everyone’s attention to be drawn upward towards its source, which turned out to be their pink clad gild leader who was currently coming down from the sky with her maul caught back in the smashing position. “Now it’s my turn!” She roared as she slammed the maul down into the head of the golem, and just like with the wolf from earlier the damage was ridiculously high. And with that blow the golem’s health bar vanished and the body crumbled to pieces.

/////////////////////////////////////////

**Reality: Room of Nora Valkyrie**

“Booyah, that’s what happens when you mess with the queen!” Nora cheered as she held her hand over headset’s microphone. Then after taking a moment to breathe and allow the adrenaline to bleed out of her, she released her grip on the mic and began to speak again. “What, he’s broken already? I didn’t even work up a sweat. How boring.” She said in mock complaint.

“You have no right to complain! If you just listened to me, then we wouldn’t have had to fight that stupid thing in the first place!” Nora heard Snow Angel hiss.

“Oh, would you calm down Weiss, it’s over now.” Nora heard Blake come to her defense.

“Thats right, it was Weiss.” Nora mumbled to herself as she remembered that Weiss was actually Snow Angel’s real name.

Weiss Schnee, Nora believed. It would sometimes slip her mind, because despite both of them going to the same school, having several mutual friends, and being part of the same guild, Weiss and Nora really weren’t all that close. Worst of all, Nora really wasn’t too sure why. It certainly wasn’t for lack of effort at least.

Ever since Nora had met Weiss, she had made several attempts to get closer to the girl, but it was to no avail. No matter what Nora tried, Weiss always seemed to shy away from her. Which seemed odd since Weiss didn’t really seem like the shy type. Reserved sure, but never shy.

Also it didn’t seem like Weiss was afraid of Nora either. After all, she never had any trouble verbally abusing her while they were in game. Though perhaps Weiss could only speak so freely precisely because they were in game.

That thought caused Nora to take pause. “Hmm, but if that’s the case then why would she be so put off by me IRL?” She pondered. Then when she finally reached a conclusion, her head slumped onto her desk and she let out a rather depressed sounding sigh. “It’s the damn chair isn’t it?” She asked herself. It had to be, it was the only explanation she could think of that made any sense.

Nora has met more people than she cared to count who felt awkward hanging out with her. Not because they didn’t like her as a person, but because they were too afraid of messing up. They were afraid of saying the wrong thing or be caught staring. At the end of the day though, they were really more worried about themselves than Nora. Very few actually stopped to consider how Nora would feel before they started to distance themselves.

With that being said, Nora wouldn’t blame Weiss if it were true. What right would she have to do so? It was her life and Weiss should be able to live it however she wants to. Besides, it wasn’t like Nora could do anything about it. You can’t guilt trip someone into being your friend. It was also worth noting that the stakes were much higher for Weiss then most other people.

Weiss was a Schnee, and that meant she was an heiress to Schnee Pharmaceuticals. Her actions would reflect on her family and their company, and despite her calm and cold demeanor, Nora knew first hand that the girl was stubborn and ran hot.

Nora and Weiss have had more than their fair share of screaming matches, or debates as the heiress had called them, but that was online where it was safe and nobody but their friends knew who they really were. However, real life wasn’t as simple. If anyone saw them engaged in one of their more heated debates, Nora was sure it would be front page news the following day.

Nora could see the headlines now, **‘Schnee heiress harasses the handicapped.’** It would say in big bold letters. The funny thing was that she wasn’t sure what would bother her more. The fact that they used her to attack the character of somebody she cared about, or the fact that they referred to her as handicapped. Both thoughts kind of pissed her off actually.

Nora was finally dragged out of her brooding by the sound of a Weiss’ voice entering her headphones. “Nora, Remnant to Nora. Are you there?”

Realizing that she had completely spaced out, Nora quickly adjusted herself and made sure she didn’t mess up her head set with her little face plant a moment ago. “Yeah, I’m fine, sorry.”

“What was that about? You went all blank face on us for a second?” Weiss inquired.

“It was nothing really. I just needed to check on something.” She explained and before she could inquire further, she tried to change the subject. “By the way was there any loot?” She asked.

“No, there was not even a single coin.” Weiss grumbled in annoyance.

“What, that’s so lame! Then why did we even bother!?” Nora roared in complaint.

“I wonder why.” Weiss deadpanned as a hand came up to grip the bridge of her nose only to be blocked by her helmet.

Then a very startled version of Pyrrha’s voice cut through the air. “Guys, I don’t think we’re done here!”

//////////////////////////////////////////

Following the sounds of movement and Pyrrha’s voice, Nora soon found herself staring at the same specter that had animated the stone statue only a moment ago. The specter was now hovering over the statue’s crumbling remains and was staring back at her with an almost curious interest.

 

Nora for her part only felt a touch of annoyance at the monster’s survival. As much as she liked surprises, she preferred the things she smashed to stay smashed. “Stubborn, are we? Alright, I guess I won’t need to hold back this time!” She declared before she gave her maul a quick twirl and she kicked off the ground towards the phantasm.

 

“Nora, wait!” Weiss tried to call out to her leader.

 

Weiss’ warning came too late however, as Nora was already upon the monster and swinging her maul at it with reckless abandon. Much to the pink clad berserker’s ire and confusion, none of her attacks seemed to be hitting their mark. Each time she would take a swing at the specter, it would simply drift just out of her reach. It was treating gravity as more of a guideline rather than a law. Though many would suppose that in a virtual world such as ROR, it was.

 

“Your Queen commands that you cease your squirming and let her squish you this instant!” Nora roared in frustration as she activated her leap ability in an attempt to lessen the distance between them. Much to Nora’s surprise, the specter seemed to actually heed her command and allowed her to get in strike range. “Your loyalty to the crown has been noted. Now your Queen shall reward you with a quick death!” She declared as she took her shot.

 

When Nora finally did bring her hammer down on top of her target, she was startled to realize that she had hit nothing but the air. It wasn’t that she had missed necessarily, but rather her trusty war maul had passed right through her enemy’s body. On top of that, the usual damage notification she would get after landing a blow didn’t appear, instead all she got was the word ‘immune’.

 

Nora had just made a rookie mistake. She should have realized that this Geist was a part of the Spirit monster category. Monsters in that class especially at higher levels tended to be incorporeal, and therefore they were completely unaffected by most physical attacks. However, once she realized her error it was too late. Nora’s momentum from her attack had taken control and had sent her barreling forward, right through the specter. Upon passing through the phantasms body, it seemed to cause a ripple effect similar to that of a rock skipping off water before leaving Nora to tumble back down to the ground with nothing more than a new curse to show for her efforts.

 

“Nora, you got yourself cursed you dolt. Maybe if you would listened when people talk, this sort of thing wouldn’t happen!” Weiss said as she rushed over to her leader.

 

“Yeah I get it, I messed up, but there’s no time for pointing blame right now!” Nora replied before she quickly checked her status. The curse was nothing too major, just a minor stat debuff along with a small damage over time effect added to it. It wouldn’t be enough to take her out of the fight, at least not anytime soon. That was certainly a good thing since it looked like they were going to have a tough one ahead of them.

 

Right after Nora’s little blunder, all eyes were on the specter as it had begun casting some sort of spell. The monster spoke no words, it only moved its arms around in a circular pattern while they trailed a dark purplish energy. A moment later and the spell was complete, forming some sort of spell circle. Then the monster threw its arms wide and ripped open a wormhole that was not unlike the one that it had appeared from originally. From the hole in space, two more specters were released. Now joined by its kin, all three specters set out in different directions to possess one of the many statues that still remaining in the clearing.

 

“This doesn’t look good.” Jaune commented as he readied himself for battle once again.

 

“One of those things was tough enough. Now we have to take on three at once!” Black Cat complained.

 

“I think we can take ’em.” Monkey King commented.

 

“Yeah, that’s the spirit!” Yellow Dragon declared as she gave her fellow blond warrior a friendly punch in the arm. “We can do this!” She cheered, causing the others to shrug and follow suit.

 

As soon as the statues were up on their feet, they had begun to charge towards the Crusaders. Their footfalls were heavy and thunderous, echoing across the landscape. If one was listening from afar, they would likely assume it to be a stampede of elephants. Though those who stood at the epicenter knew it was something far worse than a few spooked animals.

 

Knowing that their enemy would be upon them soon, Pyrrha turned towards her comrades to address them. “I don’t think I can hold all three of them. I will take the two at ten and two o’clock. Jaune, think you can handle the one on our six?” She inquired while motioning towards each golem in question.

 

Jaune was silent for a moment as he looked back to examine the golem approaching them from the rear. In truth, he didn’t think he would be able to handle it on his own. He couldn’t even distract the first one for more than a few seconds, and that was with Pyrrha’s help. So tanking through one of those things without any aid would be more than a little difficult, but he knew that he couldn’t back down here. This was still a test after all, and they were only just getting started. If he couldn’t handle this then he would be thrown out. He had to at least try.

 

“I will do my best.” Jaune finally replied with a nod.

 

With that, Pyrrha gave Jaune a quick nod right before she heard Nora’s voice cut through the air. “Alright, guys you heard them. Pyrrha is on point, Jaune has our asses. These things are tough so we’ll try to focus them down one at a time! I will set up markers now!” She declared as she opened up her interface and quickly clicked through a few menus. After a moment, a set of three symbols appeared above the heads of the golems. “We will start with the one with the skull marker, then the triangle, and then the circle! Are there any questions?!” She asked, and before waiting for anyone to reply she spoke again. “Good, now take positions!” She commanded, causing everyone to move to a defensive formation with their healer and ranged fighters in the center and their melee warriors up front.

 

Thanks to Pyrrha and Nora everyone was now ready, and it wasn’t a moment too soon either as the golems were now barreling down on top of them. Without delay, Jaune and Pyrrha burst into action by activating their taunt abilities to draw their enemy’s attention. “Over here!” They both shouted while they put some space between themselves and the rest of their party.

 

Much to the whole party’s shock and bewilderment, even with their taunts active, the golems didn’t seem the least bit interested in either Jaune or Pyrrha and pushed right past them into the second line of defense.

 

“Look out!” Pyrrha warned when she realized the golems weren’t going to be stopped.

 

“We know!” Weiss shot back as she readied her attack.

 

The first to reach the Crusader’s formation was the lone golem that Jaune was assigned. Once it was only a few yards away, it launched itself up into the air towards them and brushed off a wave of throwing knives and ice shards on its way before it slammed down in the center of the group. Though the golem did not strike any of the members directly, the impact of its landing was strong enough that it released a shockwave that was similar to that of Pyrrha’s Meter Strike ability in both form and function.

 

Many of the lighter weight characters were blown off their feet by the attack while the heavier and more durable warrior class characters were only slightly staggered by the blow. As Blake tried to regain her composure, she noticed that the golem had already gone into another attack. Its focus seemed to be completely on their pink clad guild leader. That of course wasn’t an odd thing given her high damage output, but something seemed off about it. The golem wasn’t letting up on Nora, it was striking her again and again in quick succession, and it left the girl very little room to do anything other than block and evade. Meanwhile, Blake’s other comrades were already launching a counteroffensive. As Yang and Sun were both warriors, they weathered the shockwave rather well. So now they were both hitting the golem hard from both sides, but it didn’t seem interested in them.

 

Blake’s thoughts were interrupted as she felt a body slam into her, pulling her to the ground. “What, who!?” She shirked as she tried to wiggle her way free from her attacker.

 

“Blake calm down, it’s me!” Blake’s attacker declared, causing her to glance up and see that it was none other than Pyrrha. Then looking past the girl, she saw the massive form of another golem passing over head. She had been directly in the path of the goliath, which at least explained why she had been thrown aside. This also raised a few other questions in her mind. She didn’t understand why the golem hadn’t attacked them while they were down.

 

The AI in ROR did operate on an agro system, which meant that the enemies would usually go after the most threatening players. However, they were also opportunistic and would usually make exception for a closer player if they were valuable.

 

“Here, I got you.” Pyrrha said as she shuffled back onto her feet and held out a hand to help Blake back up.

 

Blake quickly accepted her comrade’s help and was quickly back on her feet. “Do you have any idea what’s going on?”

 

“I think I do, look.” Pyrrha said with a nod as she directed Blake’s attention back towards the battle.

 

Blake did as instructed and found herself stuck by what she was seeing. All three golems were now in the fray, but their focus wasn’t the least bit divided. Rather it was all directed at one person. “They are all after Nora, why!?” She inquired in bewilderment, sure Nora had smashed the first one, but monsters didn’t usually hold a grudge.

 

“The curse, it has to be.” Pyrrha replied. “It’s the only thing that I can think of at least.”

 

Blake gave a nod of understanding. It was true, that would explain it. Nora had been cursed right before the monster had opened the wormhole. Maybe it was waiting for somebody to attack it before casting. Whatever the reason, Nora needed help, and she needed it now. “Let’s go!” Blake declared before she disappeared in a shadowy mist.

 

“I’m right behind you!” Pyrrha declared as she ran to aid her friends.

 

//////////////////////////////////////////////

 

“Ouch, crud, dang it, would you just, rahhhh!” Nora shouted in annoyance as she ducked, dodged, weaved, parried, blocked, and occasionally took a blow straight on. “Come on, is that all you got!?” She roared after nearly being flattened by one of the golem’s attacks. She had managed to block the downward thrust of the golem’s rocky limb, but it had so much force behind it that it nearly caused her knees cave in. It was at times like this that she didn’t mind having such little feeling in those limbs.

 

The golem responded by hoisting its massive limb back up for another strike, but before it could release the attack another golem decided that it was a good time to take a shot at Nora itself. This attack came from behind and Nora had little time to react to it, but she did. Nora activated her whirlwind ability, allowing her to spin in place while she held her hammer out to knock her attacker’s limb off course.

 

Then as the first golem tried to bring its arm down on top of her once again, Nora hopped off the ground. Since she was still spinning, she allowed her hammer’s momentum to carry her out of the attack’s path. She then spun her way under the third golem’s legs, striking at both of its knees as she passed and causing it to topple over. However, the stone work monsters showed no signs of giving up their chase and the two that were still standing bounded over their fallen comrade to continue their attack.

 

“Persistent whelps, aren’t you!?” Nora hissed as she braced herself. However, she was surprised when Blake suddenly appeared on the back of one of the two golems with her blades firmly planted in the stone. At the same time, Yang and Sun had caught back up to intercept the second one. Not a minute later, and Jaune and Pyrrha rushed by her to give them aid. This left Nora to sigh in relief. “It’s about time, you guys! Can you tell me why these guys have it out for me!?” She asked in mock complaint.

 

“It’s the curse, you dolt.” Weiss declared as she came up to stand beside Nora. “It seems to be generating a very large amount of agro.” She explained further.

 

“Oh, that would explain a lot.” Nora said as she took another look at her status. In retrospect it seemed obvious once she read the name of the curse. It was called ‘The Mark of the Damned’. “Can you remove it?” She asked.

 

Weiss shrugged. “I could try, but you know that Holy Magic really isn’t my thing. I don’t think I will be able to cleanse such a high level curse with the way I am specked right now.” She replied.

 

“Well can you at least give it a shot?” Nora deadpanned.

 

Though Nora could see Weiss’ eyes through that helmet, it was clear she was rolling them. “Fine, but don’t blame me when it doesn’t work.” The white clad spell caster warned before she began chanting an incantation. “Spiriti della luce santa, concedeteci la vostra benedizione affinchè ci sia concessa l'assoluzione dalle nostre impurità. Cleansing Light!”

 

Once Weiss had finished her incantation, a white light enveloped Nora, and the pink clad berserker soon found that her hit points were being quickly restored. Though, much to her dismay, her comrade’s words had been proven right. The curse was still firmly in place and the golems had now pushed through their line once again to attack her. “Well this is going to be a pain.” Nora declared.

 

“I once again, feel the need to remind you that you are to blame for this. We could have just let sleeping spirits lie and we could have been at the new boss by now.” Weiss said in a less spiteful yet more tired tone.

 

Nora just shrugged. “Perhaps, but this is also fun in its own right. If we didn’t want a challenge, we wouldn’t have even come here. Besides, I think I just got an idea.” She explained.

 

“Do tell.” Weiss asked curiously.

 

“Well, stay with me here. By the way it seems, those things have no choice but to follow me, right?” Nora asked and when Weiss gave her a sideways glance, Nora shot her a wicked grin. “I think I have a way of using that to our advantage.”

 

//////////////////////////////////////

 

Jaune groaned in pain as he was once again knocked aside by the rampaging golem. No matter how many times he attacked or taunted it, it wouldn’t stay still. It seemed that they really were dead set on taking out their leader, which he supposed wasn’t such a bad thing. Nora was certainly a lot better at handling these things than he was, but it still hurt his pride a little to know that he wasn’t even considered worth their time.

 

Though Jaune could at least take some comfort in the knowledge that his other comrades were proving no more successful at drawing the golem’s attention then he was. In their defense they were still doing far more damage then he was. Heck, they nearly had their main target down already. The golem that was assigned the top priority marker was now sitting at about thirty percent of its maximum health and was beginning to look quite shabby as a result. The second priority golem was also quite beat up and was at about sixty percent, but the last one was basically untouched and had over eighty percent left.

 

This fight looked like it was going to last a while, but at least Snow Angel seemed to be doing a good job of keeping the party in good health. Though, Jaune had to imagine that was easier when literally only one player was being attacked, but that also made it far harder to keep said player standing. And Jaune didn’t want to know what would happen if Nora went down.

 

“Over here, blockheads!” Jaune snapped to attention when he heard the sound of his leader’s voice in the distance. It looked like Nora had broken off from the group and was now luring the golems away, but to what end. “That’s right, come get me!” She taunted as she reached the edge of the clearing and jumped on top of one of many remaining statues surrounding it.

 

A moment later and one of the golems slammed into the motionless statue, shattering it to pieces. But by then Nora had already jumped back off and was heading for the next. “What the heck is that girl doing?” Jaune pondered.

 

Then he was startled slightly when Pyrrha appeared beside him huffing in over exertion. She took a moment to gather herself before she replied to his question. “Look at their health bars.” She told him.

 

Jaune shrugged and did as he was told. He watched as Nora led the golems along and allowed them to barrel through a few more statues. At first he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to be seeing, but when he noticed that the golems were taking damage it began to click.

 

The body of the monsters and the statues they were colliding with were both made out of the same material. It reminded Jaune of something he used to see in a lot of anime and cartoons, the characters had this strange ability to use steel weapons to cut through steel armor and even other weapons like butter, but in reality it didn’t work like that. If you did smack two swords of the same material against each other, usually one of two things would happen. One they would deflect off each other and neither would take damage, or two they would both take damage. Similarly, if you were to slam a granite statue into another statue of the same size and material, one statue isn’t going to beat the other just because it’s being controlled by a spirit. Sure there were methods it could employ to repair the damage it takes from the impact, but such methods could only go so far. So if it kept that up, something would have to give.

 

“She is wearing them down.” Jaune finally stated.

 

Pyrrha gave him a nod before speaking herself. “Yeah, but it’s not just that. Earlier when that first golem had been defeated, the spirit left its broken body to possess another statue. This monster is as new to us as it is to you, so for all we know it could do that again. However, if there are no statues left for it to take over.”

 

“It will be our win.” Jaune finished for Pyrrha, earning himself another nod from the girl. “Wow, two birds with one stone. Who came up with this plan? Was it you, Snow Angel perhaps?” He inquired.

 

Pyrrha just smiled and shook her head. “You give me too much credit. This is was all Nora’s idea.” She said proudly.

 

Jaune didn’t really know what to say to that, so he just remained silent and continued to watch as Nora kited the golems around.

 

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////

 

By this point, she had almost done a full lap of the meadow and had managed to widow down the golems health significantly. On top of them slamming into nearly every statue in the meadow, her comrades had been taking pot shots at them the whole time while she kept them busy. In that sense, she wasn’t acting much different than a normal tank would. The only difference is that she didn’t have to worry about the monsters losing interest in her, allowing her a lot more freedom than a tank would have.

 

Though being the center of attention was fun, it also meant that Nora had basically no time to relax, but that wasn’t really her style anyway so it worked out alright. She liked to get things done after all, and at the rate she was going it wouldn’t take much longer now. After all, they were down to the last statue and she was already making a beeline right for it.

 

The only problem was that the golems currently had her encircled. One golem was still trailing behind her, while another had cleverly doubled back in an attempt to cut her off and was now directly between her and her objective, while the last had been tripped up by her party members and fell behind, but because of this it was left in the perfect position to flank her now. However, Nora wasn’t going to be detoured.

 

She dove in between the legs of the golem that had been blocking her way forward and allowed the one that had been pursuing her to collide with the other. Then without missing a beat, she hopped back up and continued to haul ass towards the last statue. That was when the last golem had finally caught up and had taken a swing at her, but she had seen it coming and raised her hammer to block it. The blow was lighter than the ones before it. Perhaps she was just getting use to their heavy strikes, or that they were just wearing down.

 

“Back at you, buddy!” Nora declared as she pushed back against the golem’s fist with all her might, sending it to crash into its own head. “Yeah, take that!” She boasted before she was struck hard in the back and sent careening into right into the statue hard enough to take a large chunk out of her health bar and leave a Nora shaped dent in the stone work.

 

“Ouch, that hurt you jerk!” Nora barked as she glanced over from her position pinned in the statue to see that the other two golems had recovered and that one of them had kicked her. Suddenly feeling irritated, Nora began to struggle to pull herself free to no avail. “Dang it, when I get out of here I’m going to-“ She didn’t get to finish that sentence as the last golem slammed its fist into Nora, punching her right through the statue and causing it to crumble to rubble.

 

Nora landed with a bone crunching thud before breaking into a roll to defuse her momentum. Though after a moment of this, she managed to bring herself to a stop, but she couldn’t completely recover before another golem landed on top of her, pinning the girl in the dirt. Then the second golem jumped in and began punching wildly, and finally the third came in and promptly started to stomp its feet on her as well.

 

Nora could hear the gasps of her companions, she couldn’t blame them. A normal girl would have been killed instantly by something like this, and to be fair her health bar wasn’t looking too good. But she wasn’t a normal girl, and she wasn’t Nora Valkyrie either. She was the Violet Valkyrie, the leader of the Violet Crusaders. She was the Queen, and the biggest, baddest berserker of them all. And she was going to show them why.

 

Right as Nora’s health bar had reached the red zone, she felt her blood begin to boil as a familiar surge of strength shot through her veins. Her whole body felt like it was on fire and if she didn’t move it right now she really would combust. So she did.

 

Nora surged to her feet so fast and with so much force that it sent the golem pinning her down flipping into the air before crashing down on the ground nearly thirty yards away. The other two golems didn’t seem to be bothered by this and simply continued their attack, but it was all meaningless. Nora didn’t even try to block or avoid the attacks now. Each one just triggered an ‘immune’ popup to appear. And with a wicked grin, Nora dusted herself off before she casually retrieved her hammer from the ground. Then with two quick swings of the mighty maul, she shattered the pestering limbs to pieces.

 

Losing a leg caused one of the golems to lose its balance and tumble over while the other staggered backward in what seemed to be surprise. If the spirit controlling the thing could actually feel such things was unknown to Nora, but it didn’t matter. She didn’t have much time left, so she had to finish this quickly. So she kicked off the ground and slammed her hammer right into the chest of the standing golem, causing its life bar to empty and the whole thing to shatter. However, she didn’t stop there. She then kicked off a piece of falling ruble and slammed into the chest of the golem that had lost its leg, and like the last one it was obliterated on contact.

 

Now there was only one enemy left in her way. The golem she had sent flying had now returned to its feet and was charging towards her. She gave her war hammer one more experimental twirl before she pointed it towards her opponent and spoke. “Don’t worry, I shall see you to Valhalla myself!” She declared before she became a blur of motion and the golem became nothing more than dust in the wind.


	11. ROR Part 11: In the Wolf’s Den

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright so first off, I know I haven't updated in awhile so I figure I would let you know whats up. Its not that I haven't been writing, rather I have been writing a lot lately. I have just been spiting my efforts between so many things I haven't been able to put anything up. However I think I got a good line up of stuff prepared for you guys so look forward to it.

**Alpha Wing: Path of the Precursors**

Jaune watched on with his jaw slackened and his expression twisted in bewilderment as he watched his guild leader land crushing blow after crushing blow on the Golems. By the time he witnessed the last one crumble beneath Nora’s final attack, he almost found himself at a loss for words. “Amazing.” That was about the only thing he could say, nothing else really described what he’d just witnessed.

Jaune had certainly heard that his pink clad guild leader was good, but there’s a difference between being good and being down right godlike and he wasn’t sure which really applied here. She’d not only managed to tank all three of those massive Golems at once without even being properly geared for the job, but she had also been the one to deal the finishing blow on each of them.

“She really is amazing, isn’t she? With the way she acts even we sometimes forget that, but she does a good job of reminding us.” Pyrrha declared as she came over to stand beside Jaune and join him in his gawking.

Noticing his friend’s presence broke Jaune from his trance and he glanced over to see Pyrrha smiling at him. “Yeah, but how?” He asked.

Pyrrha gave Jaune a confused look. “How what? I’m not sure I understand the question.”

“How was Nora taking all those hits? I’ve felt how hard those things hit and it’s hard, but they didn’t even seem to be fazing her once she got low. Also why is it that she sometimes hits super high numbers? A critical bonus shouldn’t be able to boost the damage that much.” Jaune inquired.

“Oh.” Pyrrha said now understanding. “Well that is because of Nora’s specializations, you know the way her skill points are spread out. What you have been seeing is likely her Battlecry ability and her Frenzy Mode.

“What do those abilities do? I haven’t heard of them before.” Jaune asked.

“Battlecry is a passive warrior ability that gives the user a damage buff on their first attack when entering a new encounter. Since Nora is specialized in that skill, her first attack is always a dozy. As for the Frenzy, well you know how Berserkers have that Rage mode, right?”

Jaune nodded. “Yeah, you mean like the one that bird guy used against you on the day we met?”

Pyrrha nodded. “Yes, the Berserker Rage is an ability that boosts the user’s attack and defensive power based on the amount of health they are missing. Nora’s is a bit different though, she has upgraded her Berserker’s Rage into what is known as a Death Frenzy. While in her Frenzy mode, she not only reaps all the benefits of the Berserker Rage, but she is also effectively immortal. Until the ability times out, all damage that would take her below one health point is prevented. On top of that, her specialization allows the ability to trigger automatically when she falls below a certain threshold, in this case it’s ten percent of her maximum health.” She explained.

“Wow, that’s cool!” Jaune declared before he glanced back towards his leader who seemed to be sifting through the rubble of the Golems like she was looking for something. He thought it was weird, but figured she must have been looking for loot. “By the way, how long does the Frenzy Mode last?” He inquired.

“Usually it lasts for about thirty seconds. After that it has a ten minute cooldown period before it will be useable again.” Pyrrha replied.

“Oh, then I guess it should be wearing off any second now.” Jaune mused before he was startled by a rumbling sound coming from his leader’s direction. When he looked back towards Nora, he saw that she had pushed over a rock that had once been part of one of the Golem’s heads. The rock was shaking violently and a moment later it exploded as one of the Geists that had been controlling the Golem’s burst forth to hover above her. These ghostly figures had no faces, but based on the way the small gem in their foreheads was letting out a bright red glow, he could tell it was angry.

Nora jumped back from her enemy and took another fighting stance. She had known that this wasn’t over quite yet. Just because they had no new bodies to return to didn’t mean the Geists were dead. “Finally decided to show yourself, huh?! Where are your friends, surely they will want to join our little party!?” She barked and almost on queue the other two Geists burst from the rubble littered around the battlefield.

Noticing that the Geists were back out caused the rest of the party to surge into motion. “Into positions, everyone remember that physical damage won’t hurt them!” Weiss shouted as she began preparing another spell.

Nora smirked. “Time to pay you guys back for all the trouble you just gave me! I won’t be falling for any of your tricks so you best be prepared to di-“ Nora was cut off when the last tick of her Death Frenzy wore off and a small damage indicator appeared above her head. She froze in confusion, before she remembered that she was still cursed and without her Frenzy keeping her from taking damage the curse had just claimed her last life point. “Son of a…” Her body lost color and she collapsed on the ground motionless.

The Geists seemed to become quite pleased with themselves and all swarmed Nora’s body as if they intended to devourer her remains. “That dolt,” Weiss muttered while shaking her head. “Everyone ready!?” She asked.

“Ready!” Little Red, Blake, and The Monkey King replied.

“Attack!” Weiss commanded causing the others to unleash a magical bombardment. Then a combination enchanted bullets, icy spears, balls of fire and light struck the Geists from all sides before the elements mixed together and caused an eruption. The Geists were instantly vaporized. 

///////////////////////////////////////////

**Alpha Wing: The Wolf’s Den**

Once the Geists had finally been dispatched and their remains had been looted, the party had decided to take a short break to restore their health, mana, buffs, and most importantly since Nora had died they needed to allow her enough time to revive herself. Then once their fearless leader sprung back on her feet, they set off and were now heading towards the lair of the first official boss of the Emerald Forest, the Alpha of the Doom Pack.

“I can’t believe you guys stole my kills!” Nora complained in a huff.

“Oh would you stop pouting already?!” Weiss hissed. Weiss along with the rest of the party had been listening to the same complaints for the last five minutes and they were all growing tired of them. “You were dead! What did you want us to do there?!”

“You could have revived me!” Nora retorted.

Weiss scoffed. “And put my resurrection on cooldown right before a boss fight?! Don’t be stupid!”

“Alright fine, but we could have at least had Blake use her Reanimation Jutsu! I mean, she’s not even going to be fighting in the next encounter so what’s the harm!?” Nora shot back while pointing towards the girl in question who didn’t even seem to be paying attention.

Weiss actually seemed uncertain for a moment, but quickly recovered. “Well that’s obviously because we can’t be certain how things will pan out. That might be the plan now, but maybe something unexpected could happen that requires her to use it. It just seems silly to blow it on something so petty.”

This time it was Nora who scoffed. “I guess, but since we’re on the topic of being petty. There is something that has been bugging me about that last encounter. Why didn’t you heal me after we defeated the Golems? I feel like this could have been easily avoided if you had.” She asked in an accusing tone.

“Wha-what about it? I certainly didn’t avoid healing you just to pay you back for all the trouble you caused. Nope, I wouldn’t stoop so low.” Weiss assured her leader in a tone that was somewhere between sarcastic and nervous.

“Treachery! High treason! Snow Angel, for your crimes against the crown I sentence you to death by tickle torture!” Nora declared before springing forward and landing on top of her white clad guild member and when the girl let out a startled squeak, Nora began mercilessly tickling her.

Watching this scene play out, Pyrrha let out a small amused chuckle and she shook her head. Then Jaune turned towards her and asked. “So is this normal for those two?”

Pyrrha gave him a nod. “Yeah, but it’s not as bad as you might think. Those two actually get along quite well most of the time.”

“Really?” Jaune asked, not quite believing his friend’s words.

Pyrrha shrugged. “Well as you may have noticed, Snow Angel’s personality can be more than a little abrasive at times. I’ve even heard that she’s gotten kicked out of a few guilds before she joined up with ours because of it. However, that sort of thing just doesn’t really matter to our leader. As long as the person is serious about this game and has the skills, you’re in. Of course that doesn’t stop Nora from pushing Snow Angel’s buttons whenever possible. Though, I think the only reason Nora does that is to remind everyone, including the girl herself, that she’s part of the gang.”

“You think so?” Jaune asked as he took another look and noticed that Snow Angel, while being snappy and seemingly frustrated with their leaders antics, she didn’t appear to be trying very hard to break away from the Berserker’s grip. Sure Nora was likely stronger than Snow Angel, but If she really wanted to, she could just turn off her player collision to slip right through their leaders hands or she could even lower her sense of touch to counteract the tickle attack itself. “Hmm, I kind of see what you mean.”

Pyrrha smiled before she returned her focus to the path ahead. The forest had been getting thicker and the tree campy was starting to become so dense that the light of the Sun wasn’t able to penetrate. “We’re getting close.” She announced.

“You mean to the den of the Doom Pack?” Jaune inquired. Pyrrha gave him a nod in response. “Speaking of which, it’s been bugging me for awhile. Why are they called the Doom Pack?”

Pyrrha hummed in thought for a moment before replying. “Well I’m not really sure myself, never actually looked into the lore, but I get the feeling it has something to do with that.” She said while directing Jaune’s gaze towards a white figure resting against a tree along the path ahead of them.

Because of the distance between him and the figure along with seemingly endless shadows the tree canopy was casting, Jaune wasn’t quite sure what he was seeing at first. However, as he drew closer and began to make out more details he had to stifle a gasp. The figure turned out to be the remains of a long dead adventurer, now nothing more than a broken pile of bones wrapped in tattered red tinted clothing and rusted armor. By the looks of it, the adventurer had lost a lot of blood before death, but if he had to place bets on what actually did them in. Well then he would have to put his money on decapitation, if only because the former person’s whole skull and part of their upper spine was nowhere to be found.

“That’s not the only one.” Pyrrha declared before she directed Jaune to similar remains sprawled out all over the forest path, all were missing their skulls.

“Gees, what the heck is this? Did the Doom Pack do this?” Jaune asked. He knew that these adventurers had never been alive and were mostly placed here as set pieces, but the thought that he would soon be fighting something theoretically capable of doing something like this to a person was still a little unsettling.

“Yes, I believe so. The Doom Pack isn’t really like your typical wolf pack. They have very unique behaviors and abilities. One such behavior is the tendency to take trophies from their kills and wear them on their bodies.” Pyrrha explained.

“Wait they're wearing them!?” Jaune shot back, Pyrrha nodded. “The skulls?” Jaune asked just to be clear, Pyrrha nodded again. “Why would a wolf wear a skull? Is it just video game logic?”

Pyrrha shrugged. “Maybe, like I said I don’t really know that much. However, there is somebody here that I’m sure would know the answers.” She said before she glanced over to the soul Ninja of their party, Black Cat. The girl in question was walking in pace with them a few feet away. “Hey Blake, I got a lore question for you!” Pyrrha called out.

Hearing her name and the word lore instantly caught the Ninja’s attentions, even her character’s cat ears shot up straight before her head snapped over to see Pyrrha and Jaune. “Did you say you have a lore question, Pyrrha?” She asked.

“Yeah, I was just wondering something about the Doom Pack. What are they exactly?” She inquired.

“Ah, the Doom Pack, they are quite interesting. Though, I feel like I should ask, do you want the long or the short answer?” Blake inquired.

Pyrrha looked to Jaune to see what he wanted to hear, but since he didn’t really have any point of reference all he could do was shrug. Though, Pyrrha knew better so she replied with. “The short answer please.”

Blake almost seemed disappointed by that response, but she bounced back quickly as she began to explain. “Alright, so basically there was once an evil witch with incredible magical power and this forest was her domain. Wanting to keep out unwanted intruders, the witch used her dark magic to place a curse on some of the local wildly. That’s why the animals here are generally so large and aggressive. However, the Alpha of the Doom Pack was special, his body was infused with a part of the witch’s very soul. This not only gave the witch complete control over the beast and by extension all of its minions, but it gave the wolf an equal amount of power and intellect. The witch did this so that the Alpha could guard the front gates if you will. These displays of brutality you see around you are likely a behavior left over from that time, much like how warlords would place heads on spikes to frighten off their enemies.”

“I see, well that was interesting.” Pyrrha said.

“Wait, so what about this witch? She is not a listed boss for this dungeon, so is she not around anymore?” Jaune inquired.

Blake’s eyes seemed to light up after hearing Jaune’s question. “Ah yes, I would actually like to know that myself. According to the lore the witch suddenly disappeared one day, leaving her creations to their own devices. A lot of people have been going back and forth on the threads trying to figure out who she actually is and why she left. Some think she invoked the wrath of the Ruby Queen and was killed by one of her followers. Others think she is not only still alive, but far more involved. Possibly even the true identity of the Reaper, though personally I strongly doubt that theory. There are just too many holes in it.”

“Do you know how this new content plays into all of that?” Pyrrha asked.

Blake gave a nod. “I have the basic idea. Everyone on the forums kind of assumed she was here. After all, the developers couldn’t have been much more obvious about it. It’s kind of how the forest got its namesake.”

“She?” Jaune inquired.

However before Jaune could get an answer to his question, a low growl coming from the path ahead followed shortly be the sound of weapons being drawn and his pick clad leader’s booming voice. “We got some mobs ahead, you guys all know the drill, tanks forward, attackers at the ready, and Angel don’t forget those heals this time!” Nora commanded casing everyone to snap into motion before she raised her own weapon and taking a fighting stance. Stood before him was a horde of warped black wolves covered from head to toe in pieces of human bone, their faces covered by a masked made from the skulls of their own kind and behind it their eyes gave off a menacing red glow. “Alright you monsters, who’s first!?”

//////////////////////////////////////////////

Nora and her minions had made quick work of the trash mobs that had blocked their path and now they had finally arrived at the boss chamber. Well perhaps chamber wasn’t really the right word for it since it was basically just a pit at the bottom of a cliff face decorated with discarded bones of all shapes and sizes.

“Wow how nostalgic is this?” Nora asked to nobody in particular as she gazed out over the wolf’s den. There were a few Doom Pack Wolves shuffling about in the perimeter while at its center rested a slightly larger wolf with a dirty white coat of fur. This wolf didn’t seem to be wearing a skull mask like its brothers, but instead a necklace beaded with human skulls hung loosely from its neck. Seeing this wolf seemed to arouse some recollection in Nora and her smile deepened.

“It has been awhile since we’ve come here last, hasn’t it?” Pyrrha asked.

“Yeah, not much of a surprise there though.” Yang chimed in. “We didn’t have much reason for coming until a few days ago when the patch hit. What with no new members and everyone already in our group having all the items they need from this dungeon. That’s even counting our alternate accounts.”

“Whelp guys, there’s no sense dilly dallying, so I’m ready if you are?” Nora asked before glancing around and when everyone gave her a nod she smiled and turned back towards her enemies. “Awesome, then let’s get in there and bust some skulls!” She shouted as she hoisted up her maul and her comrades joined her in a cheer before they all broke into a charge towards the center of the wolf’s den.

Upon setting foot in the den proper, a few of the wolves patrolling the outer rim must have noticed that they had company since they jerked their head in the Crusaders direction. Now seeing their approaching enemy, their hateful red eyes narrowed into slits before they let out a chorus of growls and proceeded to give chase.

Seeing the wolves coming to intercept them, Nora called out to her two assassins. “Hey Jade, Cat, you two care to buy us some time!?” She asked. The two assassins in question both glanced in their leader’s direction before giving her a quick nod and breaking away from the group in the direction of the incoming mobs.

Jaune watched with poorly hidden confusion as Blake and Jade intercepted the wolves, running right through them hacking and slashing randomly before coming out the other side and continuing to sprint off. After doing so, the wolves all came to a dead stop before spinning around on their heels and giving chase, leaving the rest of the party ignored.

“Okay, what the heck are they doing? I thought they weren’t going to be a part of this fight?” Jaune inquired.

“They’re not, well at least they won’t really be a part of this fight.” Pyrrha responded. When Jaune’s questioning look persisted she decided to elaborate. “Since they’re going to be leaving the area anyway, we’re having them kite away the patrols while we engage the boss.”

“Oh, I see!” Jaune exclaimed as understanding begun to sink in. He could see how that made sense, since it would mean they wouldn’t have to fight as many enemies all at once. At least not right away, but there was one thing that still bugged him about it. “Wait, isn’t the plan for them to gather the relics? How’re they going to do that with a pack of wolves on their tail?”

Pyrrha giggled to herself before replying. “I wouldn’t worry about those two, they’re assassins after all. Their movement speed can easily outpace that of those wolves, and once they get far enough away they can simply activate their vanish abilities to reset their aggression levels and disappear from view. That will cause the wolves will lose interest and allow them to track down the relics uninhibited.”

“That does seem sound.” Jaune said with a nod. “By the way, is that the boss? He is not quite what I expected.” He asked while directing his friend’s attention back towards the large white wolf in the center of the den. The wolf in question seemed to have finally noticed their group and had gotten out of its resting position to face them.

Pyrrha shook her head. “Hmm not quite, take a look at his name.” She told him.

Jaune did just that and read the name above the wolf’s head aloud. “Fenrir, Herald of Doom. Level unknown and he is an elite monster. So he is elite class, not boss class?” Jaune took a brief moment to process this fact before speaking again. “So wait, if he isn’t the boss, where is it?”

Pyrrha needn’t had answered Jaune as the large white wolf took in a deep breath before letting out an ear splitting howl. Then he found himself unable to move, he wasn’t sure why until he noticed a paralyzing debuff had been applied to him and many of his other teammates as a result of the howl. Then he heard Nora’s excited voice cut through the echo of the howl. “Here he comes.”

Jaune didn’t really need to ask about who or even where because he could feel it. He could feel a sickening feeling creeping into him as the ground beneath his feet rumbled violently. Something incredibly large was moving at a ridiculously high speed and that rumbling seemed to resonate from the top of the cliff that was overlooking this wolf’s den. When Jaune finally managed to crane his head up to look upon the source, he felt a new lance of fear shoot through him as his gazed met the first true boss of the Emerald Forest Dungeon, the Alpha of the Doom Pack.

Standing at nearly two stories tall, the Alpha dwarfed all the wolves they had seen up to this point, and yet despite the increase in size, the Alpha had managed to decorate nearly its whole body with the trophies of its previous kills. It even wore a skull mask like its brethren, however no wolf skull could possibly contain its head, so instead it had dawned the skull of a dragon. How the wolf had obtained the skull could only be guessed at, but it suggested that this wasn’t a creature to be trifled with.

Jaune swallowed hard as he watched the Alpha begin it’s descent from the cliff top. It kicked off the top into a straight drop before bounding off a large rocky outcropping about half way down and landing paws down into the far side of the den. Now on the ground, the Alpha began its slow saunter towards the center. Despite its careful steps, the ground beneath its feet shook and crumbled with each movement. Before long the mighty beast was looming over the Crusaders, glaring down upon them with such cold hatred that Jaune feared his blood might freeze solid in his veins.

It was then that the paralyses effect had worn off, but Jaune didn’t notice until he saw Nora and the others begin to make experimental movements. Stretching out their limbs and rolling their shoulders to make sure they had full use of their bodies back. He also noticed that none of them exhibited any of the fear that he currently felt. Though some of their expressions were impossible to read behind their helmets, the ones he could make out were all focus and anticipation.

Not wanting to let his discomfort show, Jaune shook his head to dispel his negative thoughts and stepped forwards to stand in front of the party with his shield at the ready. Pyrrha followed suit and they gave each other a nod once they were in position.

That is when Nora tapped Jaune on the shoulder to get his attention. “Remember the plan. Leave the big one to Pyrrha, there will be more enemies coming before long and we’ll need a spare tank to handle them when they do.” She explained and Jaune gave a nod of understanding before taking a step back to allow Pyrrha the lead.

“Shall I? Pyrrha inquired.

Nora smiled. “Yeah, let’s thrash this bone faced freak!”

Pyrrha needed no further confirmation and using her leap ability, she launched herself up off the ground like a loaded spring and soared up over the heads of the Alpha and his herald. Then when the two wolves glanced up to see the incoming enemy, she activated her Meter Strike ability to turn herself into a human projectile.

Seeing the attack coming, Fenrir broke away from its master at an unnaturally high speed, its body turning into a blur of motion as it went. As for the Alpha, the beast didn’t seem the slightest bit interested in evading. Instead he used his strong hind legs kicked off the ground to meet Pyrrha half way. A moment later when the two collided, a shockwave erupted from the center and the force of the blast sent both wolf and warrior flying backward.

Despite the massive forces involved in the impact, Pyrrha had no trouble righting herself and even less sticking the landing. When her eyes met her massive opponent again, he was slamming into the ground a few yards way, landing with equal amounts of grace and poise. Then without missing a beat, she charged back in for another attack and now that the wolf’s attention was squally on her, the other Crusaders soon followed suit.

The Yellow Dragon and The Monkey King rushed in to get in striking range while Snow Angel and Little Red chose to hang back to fight from a distance. As for Jaune, he was pulled aside by Nora and pointed in the direction of the fleeing Fenrir. “Keep an eye on that one, he’s going to try flanking us!”

“I’m on it!” Jaune declared as he tried to train his eyes on the blur of white fur zipping around the den at a blinding speed. Tried being the keyword, since the wolf wasn’t making it easy to track him. It was far faster than anything Jaune had encountered in the game so far. He supposed that made a lot of sense when he thought about it. This was his first time taking part in a real boss encounter after all, and it’s kind of a given that these monsters would be a cut above the rest.

“Here he comes!” Nora warned when the white wolf finally zeroed in on them.

Heading his leader’s warning, Jaune quickly made to raise his shield and brace himself for the impact and not a moment too soon as not a second later, the white wolf barreled into him with enough force to knock the air out of his lounges. Thank goodness his digital body didn’t actually need air, not unless he was underwater of course. Game logic is so strange sometimes. Of course none of that was really important right now. What was important was the plus sized wolf that was currently pressing up against his shield and aggressively trying to claw out his throat, though Jaune got the feeling it would have settled for his intestines

Fenrir wasn’t like the wolves Jaune had held back earlier on in the dungeon. This monster was twice their size and at least three times as mean. Worst of all its increased size came with longer reach. That was an advantage the beast made good use of as it repeatedly took swings over and around Jaune’s shield and carving out large chunks of his life points.

“Ouch, hey not cool that really hur-OUCH! Crap this sucks!” Jaune complained as he fought to hold Fenrir back.

“Hey new guy, make some room. I got this!” Nora shouted, causing Jaune’s eyes to be drawn to his leader who was falling out of the sky above them with her maul pulled back in a ready position.

“On it!” Jaune shouted back as he jumped back and when Fenrir made to press in on him again, he quickly pulled back his shield and activated his shield bash ability allowing him to jam his shield into the beast’s face hard enough to force it backwards and stun it. Jaune was almost surprised that the attack actually worked. He’d heard that some boss level monsters were immune to stun and silence effects like this one, so either that just didn’t apply to Elite monsters like Fenrir, or the beast was merely an exception and Jaune had just gotten lucky. Regardless he was quite pleased with himself all the same.

“Wah-pow!” Nora cheered as she slammed the head of her war maul down on the wolf’s head. Upon contact, her battlecry ability kicked and caused a large hit marker to appear above the beast and taking an equally large chunk of its health bar along with it.

After being struck, Fenrir howled in what one could only assume is pain before it sprang backward in an attempt to put some distance between himself and his new attacker. However, Nora was instantly upon him once again, this time swinging wide and striking him in the side. On impact, Nora’s maul made a meaty crunching sound before the beast was knocked off its feet and sent skidding across the ground a few feet away, and this time it was far slower to recover and it seemed be dazed when it did.

Nora didn’t give her opponent the chance to recover as she pressed her advantage. Over and over she struck the beast, each of her strikes coming faster and harder than the last until the wolf was nearly at half health. It looked battered but still managed to look very threatening.

“Nice, what did you hit him with!?” Jaune inquired.

“It’s an upgraded version of the crippling blow ability. I’m sure you’re familiar with that one since you’re a also a warrior. Though my version is called pulverize and it’s unique to berserkers like me and Yellow Dragon. Great for when you literally want to bash some skulls in.” Nora boasted.

Uninterested in Jaune and Nora’s conversation, Fenrir charged in again intent on cutting down Nora. “Watch it!” Jaune warned as he rushed in between them with his shield held up to block the wolf’s first attack, its claws dragged across the surface creating an ear rending screech.

“Good save, Jaunny boy!” Nora complemented. Then she quickly repaid Fenrir for offending her eardrums by slamming the business end of her maul into the side of the wolf’s head, sending it toppling over once again. Then Nora looked like she was about to rush in again when an earth rattling howl began emanating from the direction of the main boss.

Jaune craned his head to see that the Alpha had already lost about ten percent of its max health, but the rest of his team were now all on the ground grasping at their ears while the massive beast howled into the sky. “What is that about?” He muttered to himself.

“Oh crap, phase two already! I better go help!” Nora declared before spinning on her heels and sprinting off towards the rest of the team only to stop a few feet away to yell back to Jaune. “Jaunny, I’m going to need you to hold our new friends off for a little bit. I will send you some help as soon as I can!”

“Wait, what!?” Jaune yelled back, but his leader was already out of earshot. Hearing a menacing growl, Jaune turned his focus back to Fenrir, but was stricken by confusion when it didn’t seem like it was his doing. That is when he noticed movement in the surrounding tree line, dark shadows and red eyes jumping back and forth in a blur of motion. That was when he recalled something that had been mentioned earlier. “Oh right, the adds… Crap!”

//////////////////////////////////////////////

Nora didn’t like leaving Jaune hanging like she just had, if only because in this case she was literally throwing him to the wolves. However, she was sure he could handle himself. He was picked out by Pyrrha after all so there has to be more to him than meets the eye. Perhaps all he needs is a chance to really show his stuff.

Besides it wasn’t like Nora had much choice in the matter. She had a rampaging boss to deal with and they would need all their heavy hitters to wrangle the beast. That is precisely why she had wanted to put Fenrir down before they reached the second phase. Now with all the extra wolves running around it will complicate things. Oh well, what can you do? She will just have to take it up a notch, or perhaps a few notches. It’s not like she didn’t have the energy to spare, rather she was enjoying herself far too much to slow down even if she wanted to. Spoiler alert, she didn’t.

On her way towards the Alpha and the rest of her party, Nora spotted Little Red-or rather Ruby-crouched behind a small pile of human remains and taking shots at the boss from a distance. The sight of her friend taking cover like that made Nora giggle a little. She didn’t see what good that pile of old bones was going to do her. If she actually pulled aggro, the Alpha would smash right through it in an instant. It’s also not like she could use it to hide either since the Alpha’s heightened senses made stealth useless. That’s why they’d sent the assassins ahead in the first place. Though, she supposed the girl was just acting on instinct and it wasn’t like it mattered one way or the other. There was no way Pyrrha was gonna let the Alpha out of her sights.

The red clad guardian in question was currently busy staving off continues attack from the enraged Alpha. Pyrrha was managing to hold her own, but the massive beast’s claws were carving up the terrain around her with each exchange of blows and making it difficult to find good footing. With her feet struggling to find perches, Pyrrha had to forsake evasion dodge and take the Alpha’s relentless onslaught head on. However the beast wasn’t making it easy. Even with her incredibly high defense and her shield taking the brunt of the assault, her health bar was still steadily being chipped away.

“Hold on Pyrrha, I’m on my way!” Nora declared as she picked up the pace. Slowing only for a brief moment as she past Ruby to tap her on the shoulder and tell her. “Tag out, I got this! We got adds on the way, think you can cover the new guy for me?! Thanks a bunch, Red!” Nora shouted back not really listening for Ruby’s response.

“I, what, huh? Hey!” Is all Ruby could get out before Nora continued on past her and was nearly out of earshot.

“There, she should be able to take some of the heat off of Jaune.” Nora mused to herself. Gunslingers were generally good at dealing with fast moving targets like these wolves and Ruby was a marksmen. A skilled Marksmen like her could pick off most of the small fries before they got anywhere close to Jaune.

Satisfied that the new arrivals would be dealt with, Nora focused on the task at hand. Now that the Alpha had started to call for his minions, she knew that they had to kill him as soon as possible. Failure to do so would just mean the number of enemies would keep increasing endlessly and eventually they would be overrun.

Luckily it seemed like Nora’s team was already making good progress on the killing front. Even if Pyrrha wasn’t being left much room for counter attacking and Weiss was stuck chaining healing spells to keep the red clad guardian fortified, the others were going almost completely ignored by the boss. Yang was clawing at the Alpha’s back legs to keep it off balance and lower his defense, the Monkey King was focusing on the beast’s weak underbelly to maximize his damage, and up until a moment ago Ruby had been peppering his eyes with sniper rounds to throw off his accuracy. They were a well oiled machine to be sure.

“Let’s see if he can ignore this!” Nora roared as she once again activated her leap ability to fling herself up into the air, clearing the remaining distance between her and the Alpha. The beast seemed to pay her no mind until she was right above it and she delivered a powerful strike to the side of its head.

The Alpha’s skull rattled as its head jerked to the side and carried its body along with it to slam into the base of the cliff that surrounded the den. Upon impact a little chunk of its health bar vanished and the beast quickly shrugged it off and with renewed vigor he rushed back in to face his opponents.

Once Nora was right above the beast she readied for a strike. However, before Nora could actually follow through with the attack, the Alpha’s behavior suddenly changed. Its glowing red eyes which had been locked on Pyrrha since their first exchange broke away from the guardian to glare up at Nora. Then the wolf breathed in deeply before unleashing a sonic howl so loud it vibrated the air in its wake and blew Nora backward like a concussive blast.

Nora wasn’t too surprised by the boss’s shift in awareness. She knew that the Alpha was more protective of its head than anything else. It makes sense due to the fact that his greatest weakness was actually hidden under that dragon mask of his. Because of that he tended to lash out at anyone the moment they come close to his head. That is why he had been so focused on Pyrrha up to this point. The Guardian’s Meteor Strike had been aimed at the Alpha’s head as well. It was a calculated move by her, a practiced strategy they often used in this encounter to guide the boss where they wanted him.

Now since Nora had been prepared, she was able to effortlessly right herself in the air as she fell and stuck the landing with enough grace to make an Olympic gymnast look envious. She didn’t stop there though, the moment her feet touched the ground she was back in motion. Her heavy metal greaves kicked up digital dirt as she made a beeline back towards the boss.

“Be careful Nora, he’s not happy!” Pyrrha warned once she realized that the boss was becoming increasingly less interested in her taunts.

“Yeah, it looks like you really pissed him off!” Yang chimed in as she tried in vain to jolly horse the beast’s rear legs only to catch a hind kick to the face. “Ouch! You son of a-”

“Don’t worry Pyr, I got this!” Nora shouted back as she picked up her pace.

Anticipating Nora’s next attack, the Alpha disengaged the rest of the party and leapt towards the pink clad berserker. Its front claws were extended outward promising a visceral end to anything caught on the wrong side of them. Wanting no part of that Nora slowed her pace and jumped to the side just in time to avoid the flying mass of fur and hate.

Realizing that it’s attack had missed its intended target. The boss spun around and began thrashing wildly, its razor sharp claws performing wide sweeping patterns in Nora’s general direction. The pink clad berserker was managing to avoid the attacks easily enough, but every time she tried to advance on her opponent it would start to back pedal and attack even more aggressively.

After a few minutes of this exchange Nora was finally forced to block one of the boss’ attacks and the force behind the blow was so great that she got thrown backward several feet. “Dang it, this guy isn’t letting me get close!” Nora complained.

“Oh really, I wonder why!” Weiss deadpanned before letting loose another volley of icy lances that struck the Alpha in the side of the face.

Not appreciating the cold bite, the Alpha directed its gaze towards Weiss and looked like it was going to make a move towards the summoner, but soon found its path blocked by both Pyrrha and Nora. “Nora we need to work together on this one!” Pyrrha declared.

“Alright alright, I get it already! Can you guys help me slow this guy down!?” Nora asked.

“I’m already on it.” Weiss declared as she began a new magical incantation.

“Good, Pyrrha can I get a distraction real quick!?” Nora inquired causing the red clad Guardian to glance in her direction. “Make it a big one!” She added while a swooping motion with her arms for emphases.

Pyrrha cracked a smile and gave her leader a nod. “Got it!” With that the gladiator activated all of her defensive buff abilities and rushed towards the boss while spamming taunts. “Over here please!”

The boss growled and grunted its displeasure, but switched its sights back on the guardian. With a snarl it lashed out towards her, but the moment his claw was about to make contact with the girl a transparent sphere of some kind materialized around her. When the claw struck this sphere it flashed brightly and the beast’s claw bounced back and it came back hard, striking him in the face with all the strength he had put into the attack. The blow was so strong that it caused a massive hit marker to appear and send him staggering backwards.

Once the Alpha was facing upward and only supported by its hind legs, Pyrrha lept forward towards the beast’s chest. “Meter Strike!” She roared making her body turn into a projectile which proceeded to crash into the boss’ chest with a meaty crunch.

The Alpha wailed in pain as it was sent toppling over onto its back and its health bar took another sizable blow. It still had plenty of fight left in it as it quickly tried to roll its body so it could get back on its feet. However, before it could manage to right itself, it was struck with another wave of cold ice. Only this time it struck at its lower body, freezing its limbs to the ground.

After a failed attempt to pull itself free the Alpha let out a furious growl in the hero’s direction, but it was quickly silenced when a pink clad girl wielding a maul flew into his line of sight right above his head. “Eat this!” She cheered as she brought the hammer down.

//////////////////////////////////////////////////

“Down boy! Sit, heel, or at least roll over and die you damn mutts!” Jaune spat angrily as he struggled to fend off attacks coming from seemingly every direction. The Doom Pack wasn’t too much tougher than the wolves from earlier on in the dungeon, but those still weren’t a walk in the park and that was with back up.

Now however, Jaune was left all on his own. He was forced to fight back more wolves than he could be bothered to count just to hold his ground. Even if he stopped to try counting them, he was fairly sure it would end with him being torn apart. If not by the hordes of black bone covered wolves than by their lightning fast beta Fenrir. The white wolf was still popping in and out of strike range to attack at Jaune’s exposed flanks. It was really annoying.

During Fenrir’s latest surprise attack, the best slammed itself directly into Jaune’s right side while he was busy grappling with another wolf. Fortunately the beast didn’t seem fit to use its razor sharp claws or teeth, but with the speed the beast was travelling the attack was more than enough to knock Jaune off his feet and send him flying across the den. His momentum was only halted when his body slammed into a pile of discarded remains, scattering bone fragments everywhere.

“Ouch, well that sucked.” Jaune groaned before trying to pull himself up out of the pile. It was easier said than done since he was practically buried in the thing, and since his character’s health was now below fifty percent he was experiencing a minor stat debuff. By the time he had managed to pull himself free, the Doom Pack had already spread out around the pile and surrounded him.

Jaune let out a deep sigh as he raised his shield and prepared himself to continue the fight. Then he heard what he could only assume was the sound of Nora engaging the Alpha in combat. While he couldn’t see the two from his current position it did give him some comfort. “I need to keep my cool. This is all part of the plan and if I can hold out a little bit longer the others will be able to deal with the Alpha.” He reassured himself.

However, Jaune’s confidence soon died an ugly death when Fenrir once again reared his head, leaping up over the other wolves to land before him staring baneful daggers into Jaune’s eyes. It was at that moment that Jaune got the feeling that this wasn’t going to work out as swimmingly as he would’ve hoped.

That’s when Jaune heard a sharp crack from somewhere behind him and he watched as the bone mask of one of the wolves in front of him was shattered and the head encased behind it vanished in a cloud of red mist. Jaune knew that sound and could wager a guess as to its source, so when he turned to investigate, he wasn’t surprised to see a certain red clad gunslinger posted up on top of the bone pile he had just crawled out of. “Little Red!?” Though, he could still act like he was.

“Hi Jaune.” Little Red said with a little wave before she pulled the bolt back on her rifle to eject a spent casing and slammed it back to lock in another round. “Nora figured you could use a little back up. Will I do?” She asked.

“Yes please!” Jaune answered immediately, relief evident in his voice.

“Cool,” Red declared with a giggle before pointing towards Fenrir. “Hey that guy is given me the evil eye.” Jaune glanced back to see that the wolf in question was now staring up at the red clad girl with blood thirsty eyes. “Can you do something about that?” She asked.

“Oh, right leave it to me!” Jaune shouted up at his new ally before rushing towards the wolf and shouting a taunt.

Fenrir responded in kind and lashed out at the charging guardian, but found itself stunned when a magical round struck it in the face. It would have reeled back in pain, but the magical round sent an electrical surge through its body causing a paralyzing effect. “He can’t move, let him have it Jaune!” Little Red declared.

Jaune didn’t need to be told twice as he quickly threw himself into the beast’s guard and activated his whirlwind ability to send his body into a deadly spin. With each rotation his blade would hack at the beast’s chest carving out large gashes into the fur and dealing decent amounts of damage.

Meanwhile a few other wolves tried to flank around Jaune, but each one that made the attempt caught a round in the head for their troubles. These shots weren’t as powerful as the first one that the gunslinger had fired, likely because she had used an ability of some sort to increase its damage. So the wolves she hit weren’t all going down in one hit. However, the distraction proved just enough to trip them up and cause them to run straight into Jaune’s spinning blade and getting hacked to pieces.

“Hey this is actually working!” Jaune cheered as he watched Fenrir’s health bar steadily decrease, but he had to stifle his glee when he saw that the paralysis was only a second away from wearing off. “Not good, time to bail!” He shouted before he ended his attack and leapt backward just in time to avoid Fenrir from eviscerating him with a wild series of claw swipes.

“Hmm, he’s not looking too good.” Little Red observed. Jaune had to agree, Fenrir was wearing down and it showed. However, the wolf could still work up the energy to snarled and shoot his enemies a baneful glare that grew more and more intense over time.

After a moment Fenrir’s white fur started to stand on end and darken, turning a deep shade of crimson red. Feeling a little concerned about this new appearance Jaune looked towards his more experienced companion. “Hey what is he doing?”

Red looked confused for a moment as if she was uncertain, but then realization must have struck her. “Oh, right. I totally forgot that this guy had an enraged mode.”

“Is that bad?” Jaune inquired suddenly feeling nervous.

“Yep.” Red replied.

“So I should be worried then?” Jaune asked.

“Yep.” Red echoed.

“Grand.” Jaune said with a sigh as he braced himself for the storm of claws and teeth that fell upon him a moment later.

Fenrir had unnatural speed and strength to begin with, but now it almost seemed otherworldly and the beast was fighting like it was possessed. Every blow Jaune actually managed to block sent sharp lances of pain coursing through his limbs and every blow that he failed to block, which was most of them at this point, would take a large chunck of his health out and send him flying like a ragdoll.

Little Red was trying her best to offer some support to the struggling blond guardian, but the horde was unrelenting. She was being forced to pull double duty flipping back and forth between keeping the Doom Pack runts in check and stacking damage on Fenrir. Unfortunately, the mob showed no signs of thinning and the boss, while low on health, was still on a rampage, making far more resistant to damage.

“I think we may be in trouble.” Little red declared.

“You think!?” Jaune deadpanned before taking another blow from Fenrir, sending him flying back into the bone pile Little Red was using as a vantage point. Since the pile had already been destabilized from his first visit, the pile gave way toppling on top of him and spilling bones in every direction.

Little Red let out a yelp as she felt her footing disappear and gravity taking hold of her. Her reflexes kicking in, she quickly trilled her body to right herself and performed a perfect landing on the ground below. However, she was startled again when she heard a groan coming from directly below her. When she looked down to see that she was standing on Jaune’s face her eyes widened and she leapt off.

“Oh no, Jaune I’m so sorry!” Red apologized in a panic. Looking up at her, Jaune could see that there was a little bit of red slipping onto her cheeks. He had to marvel at this game’s attention to detail.

“It’s fine, it was not the worst thing that’s happened to me today.” Jaune deadpanned before he fought to get back up onto his feet. His whole body felt stiff and one look at his display was all he needed to know why. His health was below ten percent and his stats were taking a hefty penalty to match. What he wouldn’t give to be a berserker right now. They never have to put up with battle fatigue. “I’m not going to be able to fight like this.”

“You might not have a choice.” Red stated as she took aim at the enemies who had begun to approach them.

Jaune groaned before he hoisted up his sword and shield in an attempt to step into a fighting stance. His limbs complained at the effort at first, but then suddenly felt much lighter. All the weight that had been holding his body down just seemed to fall off his shoulders like snow.

“Huh?” Jaune mumbled. The blond guardian was quite confused by his sudden burst of energy, but a quick glance back at his display showed that his health had partially restored. His health was now sitting at about twenty-five percent and on top of that he had a new set of stat buffs to replace his injury debuff. When he saw what these buffs were he knew right away who was responsible for this. “Monkey King?!”

“Yo guys!” The blond monk replied as he seemed to pop up out of nowhere to jam his staff into the faces of a few of the Doom Pack grunts. “You want a hand?”

“Sun!? Shouldn’t you be helping the others!?” Little Red asked.

The Monkey King shrugged. “They seem like they had it handled.” He said before directing their attention back towards the melee with the Alpha. When Red and Jaune glanced over, it was just in time to see Nora slamming her war maul down on top of the Alpha’s head.

Nora’s attack must have been a strong one since it completely shattered the dragon skull mask the Alpha had been wearing and revealed that there was a strange purple gem imbedded in the Alpha’s forehead.

“Besides,” The monk began bringing attention back to him. “This fight looks like it will be way more fun!” Fenrir must have agreed with the Monkey King’s sentiment since it instantly homed in on the monk and with a snarl lunged for him. “Woah!” Monkey shouted as he made to dunk out the way.

“I got it!” Jaune shouted as he jumped into the Fenrir’s path causing the beast to slam into his shield. Jaune had expected the blow to knock him off his feet again, but the defensive buffs Monkey King had given him seemed to help.

“Nice one bro! Now just hold him there like that!” Monkey King declared before he leapt over Jaune to deliver a spin kick to Fenrir’s head, causing the beast to be sent twirling backwards and collide with a few other grunts that had been approaching and stunning the whole group. Then the monk turned back towards their red clad gunslinger. “Ruby it’s about time to bust out the big guns!”

“Roger that!” Red replied cheerfully with a salute before switching her sniper rifle out for another far bulkier weapon she had been carrying on her back. The new weapon looked like some sort of handheld cannon painted a deep shade of red. Then she crouched down on one knee and used her shoulder to stabilize the weapon so she could line up the barrel with Fenrir. Once she had the beast in her sights she smiled viciously and squeezed the trigger. “Astalavista baby!”

Jaune looked on in awe as a single rocket was launched from the barrel of Red’s cannon and sent screeching forth towards her disabled target. Once it was a few feet from the cannon it seemed to unfold entering some sort of second phase before suddenly increasing speed and gaining height. Then a few seconds later the rocket broke apart to reveal a few dozen smaller rockets that all scattered in different directions only to all gather back together on Fenrir’s position.

A chain of explosion induced tremors rocked the den as Fenrir and several of his kin were engulfed in flames and smoke. Meanwhile Jaune had to take a moment to retract his jaw so he could speak. “What was that thing!?” He sputtered.

“She is not a thing!” Little Red said in mock offence before drawing back out the weapon in question and caressing it fondly. “Her name is Rosehorn and she is part of my ultimate ability.”

“So, you could have done that this whole time!?” Jaune asks earning himself a nod from the red clad gunslinger. “And you didn’t why?”

That question seemed to be enough to make the smaller girl pout. “Well as cool as Rosehorn is, she has a really long cool down, and on top of that her ammo is really expensive. So I don’t like to use her when I don’t have to. Besides you were always too close to Fenrir, didn’t want any collateral damage.”

“Oh, yeah I guess that makes sense.” Jaune said as he began scratching the back of his neck in embarrassment.

“Umm, guys we got more baddies!” Monkey King warned, directing everyone’s attention back towards the clearing smoke and the moment he did the sound angry of snarls filled the air.

From the flames Fenrir hobbled forth. For a moment the sight of the beast caused Jaune’s breath to catch, but he quickly noticed that the vigor the beast had earlier had all but evaporated. Its pale white fur had returned, indicating that its enraged mode had ended and its health bar was so low it was practically invisible. None of that would stop it however, the beast was angry and determined so it continued its slow march.

“Now that’s just sad. We should put this guy out of our misery. The only question is who wants to do the honors?” The Monkey King offered. Little Red shrugged before they both looked towards Jaune expectantly.

“I’ll do it.” Jaune replied, determination evident in his voice.

“Alright, if anything goes down remember we got your back!” The Monkey King cheered. “Now get in there and kick his butt!”

Jaune didn’t need to be told twice. He sprang forward towards Fenrir, ignoring a few grunt stragglers milling about between them who were promptly taken out by his allies anyway. Then once he had closed the distance between himself and his opponent, Fenrir reared back like he was going to attempt an attack, but the movements were sluggish and easy to read. Jaune dunked to the side with more than enough time to avoid the strike and before Fenrir had nearly enough time to try for a follow up, Jaune slammed his shield into the beast’s chest knocking it over.

Once on its back and too drained to roll itself over Fenrir howled in frustration while Jaune let out a battle cry of his own and thrust his blade down into the beast’s throat. The blow not only silenced the beast’s cries, but completely emptied the beast’s health. Fenrir flailed desperately for a few more seconds before falling still and beginning to dissolve to dust.

“Woot, you did it Jaunny boy!” The Monkey King cheered.

“Yeah you kicked butt!” Little Red added with equal cheer.

Jaune gave his allies a nod before taking a look around to see what else he could do. Most of the adds were about cleared out now thanks to Red’s abilities. Soon they would be able to go help the rest of their team. Or at least that was what he thought until he heard a familiar gut wrenching howl coming from the direction of the main battle. “Ahhh, what is that!” He shouted over the ringing in his ears.

“Phase three!” Little Red shouted back before pointing towards the Alpha who was in a sitting position and howling towards the sky, then towards the tree line that was now once again brimming with enemies.

Jaune let out a tired sigh as he looked at the approaching horde. “Grand, well let’s get started!”


	12. ROR Part 12: The Wolf’s Den Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first boss shall fall.

**Alpha Wing: The Wolf’s Den**

If you ever asked Nora if she loved combat in ROR, you would quickly learn that yes she did in fact like it. However going down that rabbit hole is not one anyone should take lightly. Not unless they have an hour or two to allow Nora to explain her love in great detail.

The things the young berserker liked about the game were numerous. The feeling of strength and the sense of speed it gave you was just so energizing, liberating even. It made her feel like she could do anything. That is why it was one of her favorite things in the whole wide world. Right up there with Ren's pancakes, hanging out with her besties, and going to track meets. Well she hadn't been to very many of the latter lately, hard to work up the motivation when you're a permanent benchwarmer, but she still liked them. The competitive spirit was contagious that way.

However, what Nora didn't like was the grind, the endless monotony that usually linked point A to B. She didn't care much for complicacy either. She hated when she felt like she wasn't getting anywhere, like she wasn't being properly rewarded for her efforts.

That is what made raiding with so few people such a double edged sword. On one hand, it meant more fighting for her and she liked the challenge it represented, and of course she loved the respect her and the guild gained from meeting those challenges. However on the other hand, her mind and body could only endure so much abuse and this game had a habit of pushing those limits.

Right at this moment as Nora performed a deadly dance with the Alpha hot on her tail and only three allies at her side, she wasn't sure which way this encounter was leaning, but it ultimately didn't matter. Though the reason was fairly simple, she was having a blast.

"Weiss, ice its legs! Yang you cover Weiss! Pyrrha cover me, I'm going for its head again!" Nora commanded as she rolled out from under another one of the Alpha's attacks and begun putting some distance between them.

"I'm already on it!" Weiss declared as she began another incantation and the Yellow Dragon rolled up beside her.

Then when the Alpha turned to try and pursue the pink clad berserker, he was struck hard in the side. When he spun to see the source he was once again faced with Pyrrha. The Alpha snarled at the Guardian before lunging, his claws outstretched with the intention of ripping her apart.

Pyrrha smirked as the beast's claws closed in around her and she activated one of her defensive abilities. When she did there was a light flicker around her body before a bubble shaped transparent shield materialized to intercept her opponent's attack. Upon impact the Alpha's claws seemed to bounce right off the shield and do little else to the girl within. However that only seemed to enrage the beast further, causing it to launch into a flurry of blows that tore up the ground around the gladiator, but her shield still held firm.

Then the Alpha was sent reeling back when Nora's maul collided with the side of the beast's face. Now that his protective mask was gone, the blow seemed to deal even more damage than the ones before. Also when the damage was received, a light shimmer could be seen emanating from within the purple gem upon the beast's head.

"Did you forget about me?!" Nora shouted before whirling around for another blow, but the Alpha leapt backward to avoid her strike. Then Nora turned towards the guardian. "Pyrrha after him!"

"Roger!" Pyrrha replied before changing forward.

That is when the Alpha let out another ear splitting howl, this time however it didn't draw more wolves into the fray, but instead called all the wolves in the area to his side.

"Looks like his friends are coming!" Yang declared as she readied herself to defend against the approaching wave of fur and hate.

Yang's preparation proved unnecessary however as many of the approaching wolves promptly caught a sniper round with the back of their skulls knocking them all off their feet and killing many of them. Yang's gaze instinctively switched to the source of the gunfire and when she did, she saw her little sister shooting her a smirk. Yang smiled and gave her sister a quick nod before looking towards another mass of black fur and noticed that Jaune and Sun where working together to get the wolves attention again.

"Looks like they got us covered!" Yang announced as she turned back towards Weiss.

"Good," Weiss hummed with a nod. "We have our hands full as it is." With that Weiss refocused on her spell which was quickly nearing completion. Feeling that the time was right she raised her arms up towards the sky and suddenly a storm of wind and ice began to rage around her.

Realizing what the white clad spellcaster was about to do, Yang figured her other two companions might want a heads up. "Nora, Pyrrha, Weiss is ready! You might want to get out of there!"

At the same time Pyrrha and Nora glanced back to see an ever growing pillar of wind and ice then looked to each other. With a nod they both disengaged the boss at the same time heading in two different directions and causing the Alpha to momentarily pause as it considered which to pursue. That had proven all the time Weiss required as not a moment later she drew back in the tempest, changed its direction, and hurled it all in the beast's face.

The Alpha roared and reeled back as the storm engulfed him. As its vision became blocked by the icy winds and damage markers began to sprout up all around it, the Alpha tried to thrash and claw at the tempest. It was trying to remove the source of its agony, but the white clad mage was far outside his reach and his body was beginning to slow as the ice coated his extremities.

Then just as the raging winds had begun to subside a fierce battle cry rang out, the volume of which was so loud that it easily eclipsed the dying storm. When the Alpha glanced over to see where it was coming from, it was just in time to see the gleam of pink armor and a silver hammer coming down towards his head.

The Alpha tried to move, but its legs wouldn't respond, it tried to swat the girl out of the air, but its arms were equally as useless. The Alpha let out a furious roar, perhaps in an attempt to dissuade the girl from attacking, but it only seemed to egg her on.

"Boop!" Nora roared as she slammed her war maul home. She had struck the Alpha square on the forehead, right on top of the dark gem embedded within it. Upon impact the gem flash brightly as a massive hit marker appeared and the Alpha reeled back in pain and looked like it might have fallen over if it weren't frozen in place. However, the beast wasn't dead quite yet so Nora raised her war maul up and slammed it back down this time using an ability to amplify her striking power.

"Boop!" Nora roared again as her second blow struck and this time the gem in the Alpha's head flashed even more brightly before it cracked and began to leak the purple essence that had been stored within. However, the beast still did not topple, but Nora knew she was close so she raised her hammer up for one final strike.

Alpha reacted like it had before, it tried to strike the girl who was causing him pain, but this time the ice that had sealed his movements had dissipated. Now with his limbs free, he swung his claw up to meet his enemy, it struck.

Nora let out a surprised yelp as she took a direct hit from the powerful beast and was sent hurtling across the den to land in a pile of human remains with about fifty percent less health than she had a moment earlier.

"Ouchy, that's smarts." Nora mumbled as she slowly climbed her way out of the pile, but once she was about half way out she noticed that the Alpha was now stomping his way towards her and there was no question of its intentions.

Nora tried to pull herself free, but she just wasn't quick enough to defend herself against the Alpha's follow up attack. As the Alpha cocked back its arm to lash out at the pink clad berserker, Nora braced herself for impact. However, before the Alpha could bring the attack down upon her, she heard Pyrrha call out to her.

"Nora I got you!" Pyrrha shouted as she activated one of her abilities to create a defensive energy shield around her guild leader not unlike the one she had used to protect herself moments ago.

When the beast swung down, the shield deflected him and denied him his prize. That seemed to upset the beast even further causing it to claw and stomp at the bone pile and the girl buried within. Before long the pile was reduced to dust and while Nora was still relatively unharmed, the bubble of protection was fading fast.

Luckily for the pink clad berserker, Pyrrha had now caught up and had begun to taunt the beast. "Hey come over here big guy! I got the tasty meats you want so badly!" She shouted in the Alpha's direction while banging her spear on her shield like a gong.

The Alpha glanced over to the red clad guardian, seeming to weigh its options. The threat that Pyrrha's taunts were generating was high, but the amount of damage Nora had done still made her top priority. However, the girl was protected by a defensive ability making the Alpha's attacks ill effective against her making her a lower priority. Ultimately, the Alpha decided to stick with his original target and ignore the guardian, but when he turned back to look for the berserker, she had vanished.

The Alpha growled as it began to glance back and forth and sniff the air, trying to pick up the scent of his lost prey. After a moment of this his eyes were drawn underneath him. When he looked under himself, it was just in time to see his prey stood between his hind legs and preparing a strike.

"Boob, boob!" Nora cheered as she swung out and clipped both the Alpha's hind legs causing them to buckle.

Suddenly without the support of all four legs, the Alpha stumbled and toppled over onto his belly. It tired to get back up, but before it could, it heard Pyrrha yell out from somewhere above him. "Meteor Strike!"

The Alpha looked to see a human encased in a ball of fire careening towards his face. Knowing what was to come, the Alpha let out one more desperate roar. The volume of which was so high that it caused actual damage to everyone nearby, but it did nothing to stall the guardian, and a moment later she struck.

Pyrrha landed with a bang, the full force of her ultimate ability detonating on top of the Alpha's head. Her target had been the gem and she had hit it dead on. A damage marker even higher than anything Nora had managed sprang up as the gem cracked, then cracked some more, and then it shattered.

The moment the gem broke a ray of dark purple light shot forth into the sky and the beast roared in agony. It thrashed, it roared louder and louder, it thrashed harder, then the light faded. Its body slowed, its voice was silenced, and finally the Alpha crumbled. Its body collapsed completely and it became very still.

The Alpha was defeated.

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Jaune, having just watched the boss fall was once again finding himself awestruck. He had barely been able to hold his own against the Alpha's minions, but his friends had just dominated the beast. It also seemed that with the boss defeated, his job was done as well. All the wolves he had been facing howled before scattering in all directions, many of which disappearing into the tree line shortly after.

"Hey, good work out there man." The Monkey King said as he placed a hand on Jaune's shoulder, bringing him back to (virtual) reality.

"Yeah thanks, I guess we won." Jaune finally manages to say.

"Was there ever any doubt?" The Monkey King asked.

Jaune looked like he was about to reply before Little Red cut in. "Of course not! We kicked some serious butt!"

"I believe Monkey King was the only one doing any kicking Red." Jaune retorted earning himself a chuckle from the monk.

"It was a figure of speech." Little Red deadpanned.

"Oh I know, I just wanted to tease." Jaune said with a laugh causing the girl to pout, but her expression quickly returned to a wide smile and she gave him soft paunch in the arm.

"Really though, this was more trying than I'm use to. The Alpha is considered the easiest boss in this dungeon so it would've been fairly embarrassing if we wiped against him." Little Red mused.

That statement caused Jaune to pause. He had forgotten that this was just the first boss. They still had two bosses to go and then the bonus boss after that. On top of that, they would be doing those bosses on a harder difficulty thanks to those relics their assassins were currently hunting. A moment ago he felt like he had seen the top of the mountain, now he felt like he hadn't even started the climb, and it made him sick to his stomach.

"At least we will have our assassins back when we face the rest of the dungeon." The Monkey King added. "I feel like we didn't have enough damage in this fight making it drag out."

Little Red gave a nod. "Yeah, I kind of got the same feeling. We could have also used more crowd control. Weiss and Pyrrha are the best for that, but they had to focus on the boss. I wish Coco was still here, she would have decimated these grunts."

"Coco?" Jaune asks curiously.

"She is one of our former members." Little Red said with a shrug. "She was a Gunslinger like me. Though, her subclass was a Heavy instead of Marksmen. Her gatling gun was great at clearing out mobs like these."

"Oh, where is she now?" Jaune asked.

"She quit. Coco and three other members quit all at once." The Monkey King cut in.

"Oh yeah, I think I remember hearing something about that. Why would they do that though?" Jaune asked.

"They had a good reason. They were all high school seniors and wanted to focus on studying and getting into a good collage." Little Red replied. "However, they were four of our best members. Nora took their leaving a bit personal, so now they're referred to the four that shall not be named. If I was you, I would avoid mentioning them around her." She warned.

"Good to know." Jaune said with a nod.

"Hey guys!" The group of three all heard their guild leader call out to them, when they turned to see what the berserker wanted they saw that she was currently hunched over an actual treasure trove. "Come on, we got loot to sort!"

Jaune looked back towards Little Red and she met his gaze with a neutral expression. Then Red shrugged before a wide smile came over her face. "Race you!" She declared before zipping off to meet the rest of the group.

"Hey that's no fair!" Jaune said jokingly before giving chase and The Monkey King laughed before jogging after his comrades.

Once Jaune had reached the pile of loot it looked like the Berserker had already stashed most of into a seemingly bottomless item bag. Then he noticed Pyrrha stepping over to stand beside him. He noted the large smile she was wearing.

"Hey Pyrrha." Jaune greeted.

"Hey Jaune." Pyrrha replied before pausing for a moment and then adding. "You did really great out there, I think Nora was impressed."

"You really think so?" Jaune asked trying his best to not sound embarrassed. Pyrrha nodded in reply. "You were way more amazing though. The way you were fighting was unlike anything I had ever seen before, if I wasn't fighting for my pixilated life I don't think I would have been able take my eyes off you."

Pyrrha coughed and looked away from Jaune. "It was all Nora really, she did most of the damage. I was just giving her some support."

Jaune looked like he was about to say something else, but was cut off when Nora looked up towards them and spoke up. "What was that Pyrrha? Did you say my name? You're not talking about me behind my back are you?"

"Oh no, I was just telling Jaune about how great you are." Pyrrha quickly blurted.

Nora stuck up her nose and began to laugh. "Yeah, I am pretty awesome aren't I?" Then her laughing stopped and she suddenly looked serious. "Wait, you're not being sarcastic are you?"

Pyrrha didn't bother answering that question instead she decided a change in subject was in order. "So did we get anything good?"

Either not catching Pyrrha's obvious deflection or just not caring enough to do anything about it Nora shrugged before replying. "Pretty standard fare, there isn't anything too valuable. Though, it is mostly just gold which is nice since it will save us some time in the market."

"I see. Is there anything that Jaune might be able to use?" Pyrrha asked while directing attention to the boy in question. "He could still use some proper raid gear."

Nora hummed in thought as she looked Jaune up and down. "Well it does seem like his equipment could use some work. However this boss doesn't drop much plate armor. Mostly just cloth and leather and we didn't get any decent weapons either."

"So there isn't anything?" Pyrrha asked suddenly sounding a bit deflated. Then she looked over to Jaune to add. "Sorry Jaune, but don't worry I'm sure we will find something for you today." She tried to reassure.

"Oh, no you don't have to worry." Jaune said while waving his hands. "I'm not upset or anything. I'm just happy to be a part of this."

"Hey I didn't say there was nothing." Nora cut in causing both Jaune and Pyrrha to look up to the now smirking berserker. "There is one thing I think he will be able to make use of." She said as she reached into the item back and began digging around. "Ah here it is." She said as she grasped something inside and pulled it out to show her companions.

"A necklace?" Jaune asked as he examined the item being held up before him. The item was rather simple in design, only a thin piece of string with a hand full of rounded and sharp looking beads looped around it. Though upon closer inspection he found that the sharper looking beads weren't beads at all, but rather they appeared to be wolf fangs and claws.

"Ah is that a Wolf Fang Necklace!?" Pyrrha asked excitedly as she quickly reached out to snatch the item from her friend's hand. Then after taking a moment to expect it she gave Jaune a wide smile before holding it out for him. "Here Jaune, I think you will like this."

Jaune shrugged trying not to act as excited as he was to be getting some better gear and happily accepted the item. Then he held the item up above his head and began humming a familiar sounding tune.

Jaune's odd actions caused Nora and Pyrrha to give each other an uncertain look. "Umm, Jaune what are you doing?" Pyrrha asked.

"Oh sorry," Jaune said suddenly sounding embarrassed. "I've been playing a bit too much Zelda lately."

That seemed to catch Little Red's attention as she quickly spoke up. "Oh yeah the new one just came out! Hey how is it, is it good!? I was thinking about getting it."

Jaune smiled. "Yeah, it's really good. It might even be the best one yet. The low item durability is kind annoying, but other than that it is just about perfect. I give it a nine out of ten."

"Wow, I can't wait to play it now!" Little Red cheered.

"Hey don't get too distracted, we have exams coming up." The Yellow Dragon warned her sister.

"I won't, geez!" Little Red pouted causing everyone but Pyrrha to chuckle.

Noticing that Pyrrha seemed lost Jaune called out to her. "Hey is something up, Pyrrha?"

"Oh, I was just wondering what Zelda is?" Pyrrha asked.

When the red glad gladiator said that, Jaune and Little Red almost looked like they had been slapped. "Wait you don't know what Zelda is?!" Little Red asked.

"I, umm, no, sorry I don't. Should I?" Pyrrha asked nervously before glancing around their group to see that a few of them looked just as dumbfounded as Jaune and Little Red.

"You really don't know?" Jaune asked to be sure and when Pyrrha gave him a nod his mouth fell open.

"Is it really that well known?" Pyrrha asked.

"It's only one of the most beloved gaming franchises of all time. Seriously this latest entry has already sold more copies than the only console it is playable on." Jaune explained causing Pyrrha's head to dip in defeat.

Then Nora began to laugh loudly drawing everyone's attention to her. "Sorry, but you guys are barking up the wrong tree. Pyrrha may like playing ROR, but I wouldn't really call her a gamer. I don't even think she has ever owned a home console of her own."

"Wow that is a surprise, with how good you are at this I just kind of assumed you were well versed in video games." Jaune said.

Pyrrha shrugged. "To be honest I have no talent for normal games. This game feels far more natural than anything else I've played and it helps that so many of my friends play as well." She explained earning herself a nod of understanding from Jaune. "By the way weren't we in the middle of something?"

"Oh yeah the necklace, I had almost forgotten! Sorry about derailing us there!" Jaune apologized before he retrieved the necklace from his inventory where he had put it.

Now in his hand he was able to properly examine the item. The first thing he noticed was that the item was a purple item which was an easy way of showing its rarity. Purple items were the second highest rarity items in the game and were usually better than anything of a lower rarity, as long as they were of the same level. His current necklace was blue, one tier down from purple.

First Jaune looked at the item description which gave him some lore around the item. It told him that the teeth and claws on the necklace actually belonged to Fenrir, which he wasn't sure how to feel about. It was kind of weird to wear something like this, but at the same time he suddenly felt like he understood hunters that liked to have their bigger kills stuffed and mounted.

Then Jaune focused on the important thing, the stats. When he did, he was quite pleased with what he saw. It was a complete upgrade from what he was currently using and the strength boost the item gave would make a huge difference. Though there was something else that caught his eye, in the stat menu he saw something listed below. "Active Ability: Feral Speed?" Jaune read allowed.

Pyrrha gave a nod before answering. "That item has an activated ability you can use just like your normal abilities. Feral Speed will give you a temporary movement speed buff."

"Oh, that's really cool! I didn't know that," Jaune paused, he was about to say that he didn't know the game had items with activated abilities, but decided against it. Nora was standing right next to him and if he was going to stick with the story about being well versed in this game, he couldn't act too surprised about something like this. "I didn't know that this boss dropped an item like this." He quickly said before swapping out his neckwear.

Pyrrha gave Jaune a pleased nod before turning her attention back towards their leader. "So are we ready to move on?" She asked.

"About, we just need to wait for our assassins to get back to us." Nora explained before she heard the sound of a message coming in. "Oh, speak of the devil!" She said as she quickly popped open her interface to take a look.

**Private Message from Jade Lotus:** I have collected all the relics on my end and am heading towards the rally point now.

After reading the message Nora quickly typed up a reply.

**Private Message to Jade Lotus:** Nice work! We just got done here ourselves. Do you know if Blake is done yet?

**Private Message from Jade Lotus:** Not sure, you should send her a message.

**Private Message to Jade Lotus:** Alright will do, see you in a bit.

“Well, are we ready?” Weiss asks as Yang and her come over to join in the conversation.

“About, just give me a minute. I got to contact our local ninja and see what her status is.” Nora replied before she began typing up a new message.

**Private Message to Black Cat:** Hey how are things going on your end? We just beat the Alpha and Jade says she is all set.

**Private Message from Black Cat:** I got all the relics in my area and now I’m currently at the ruins. I figured I would go ahead and scope out the Reaper’s usual spawn point. Luckily it looks like she’s decided not to grace us with her presence today.

**Private Message to Black Cat:** Well that’s good, as much as I enjoy that encounter today is not the day for it. Anyway go ahead and place the relics then meet us back at the pass.

**Private Message from Black Cat:** Roger, I will see you soon.

With that done Nora closed out of her interface and returned her attention to the members of her team right next to her. “Looks like were all set, all we got to do is go meet up with Blake and Jade then we will be splitting up again to lure the second and third bosses back to the ruins.”

“Alright, so shall we move out then?” Pyrrha asked.

Nora gave a curt nod. “We’re done here, no reason to stick around.”

“Well let’s get moving then, this place smells like death and fur and I’m over it.” Snow Angel chimed in before she made to leave. The others seeing no reason to ague quickly followed behind.

Once they were at the edge of the Den a great rumble resonated from somewhere further heads and a great pillar of light shot up into the sky.

“What the heck was that!?” Jaune asked.

“Blake and Jade must have placed the relics.” Pyrrha told him. “Things will be a bit harder from here on out so be on guard.”

Jaune swallowed hard, but gave his friend a nod. That last fight was hard, but his friends didn’t even seem phased by it and if they still weren’t worried than he saw no reason to doubt them.

////////////////////////////////////////////

**Emerald Forest Dungeon: The Crossroads**

Once the party had pushed past the Wolf's Den, it was relatively smooth sailing until they found themselves between two different paths. One path would take them towards the northeast and up a mountain. That wing of the dungeon was the nest of the second boss, Nevermore of the Black Wing. As for the other path towards the northwestern side, that lead downward into what appeared to be a cave system. That wing was the lair of the third boss, Dreadscale of the Golden Claw.

"Hey took you guys long enough." Blake called out to her comrades as they approached while Jade just gave short wave.

"Hey guys! Good work with the relics!" Nora cheered.

"Nothing we haven't done before." Blake replied and Jade gave a nod of agreement.

"True enough I suppose." Nora admitted before becoming a bit more serious. "Just thought I would try and boost your moral a bit. The real hard part is about to start after all."

"This is going to be hectic." Pyrrha said with a sigh. "Seriously why did it have to be Players and Pieces of all things?" She complained.

"Because Pyrrha, it wouldn't be a challenge otherwise." Nora shot back. "Now then, does everyone remember the plan and their team assignments for the next stage?" She asked.

Pyrrha raised her hand. "Sorry could we get a reminder?"

Nora rolled her eyes, but didn't seem upset. "Alright, but you guys better listen up because I don't want to go over this again. For us to trigger the bonus boss we need to complete the Players and Pieces achievement. That means we will need to kill both the next two bosses at about the same time."

Nora paused for a moment to make sure what she was saying was sinking in before going on. "For that end we will need to split up into two teams and lure them to the same locations so we fight them as a group. That location will be the ruins to the north of here."

"How're we splitting the teams?" Yang inquired.

"I'm getting to that." Nora replied. "We will need at least one tank for each team, so team one will have Pyrrha and team two will have Jaune. Since team two will have the weaker tank, no offence," She said motioning towards Jaune who waved dismissively. "Our main healer Weiss will be on team two with him while Monkey King will cover team one."

"What about the rest of us?" Ruby asked.

"Since team one will be engaging the Nevermore, they will need some ranged options. So Blake, Ruby, and Yang you are with them. Jade and myself will be on team two. Is there any questions?" She asked and when she received none she grinned. "Good, now let's go kill some beasties!"


	13. ROR Part 13: Players and Pieces

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nora, Jaune, Weiss, and Jade decent into the dark depths of the mount to locate their prey.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Howdy everyone it sure has been awhile since I uploaded a ROR chapter hasn't it? Well if you've been paying attention to this work enough to answer yes, then I have good news for you! This chapter had gotten a bit too long I had to basically cut it in half. What does that mean for you? Well it means you not only get this plus sized chapter now, but you shouldn't have to wait nearly as long for the next one.
> 
> By the way, I always enjoy hearing from you guys so be sure to leave any thoughts or feelings you have down in the comment section. Feel free to be harsh, I can take it.
> 
> This story was proof read by MartunaMajor.
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY.

**Dreadscale Wing: The Pit of Shadows**

“Man it is really dark in here.” Jaune said as he waved a hand in front of his face, then sighed when he could see nothing.

“Of course it’s dark silly, it’s a cave. While I haven’t been in many caves, of the ones I have been in, they are mostly dark.” Nora chimed in from somewhere behind Jaune. Where precisely would likely remain a mystery to him.

“Yeah I kind of get that and all Nora, but why is it so dark? I can’t even see my hand in front of my face let alone navigate in here, isn’t that kind of a problem?” Jaune asked sounding annoyed. “You would think the developers would’ve put in some torches or something?”

Nora shrugged, but then realized the action couldn’t be seen and went for the more verbal approach. “I guess we’re all just use to it. We’ve been through this dungeon so many times we could probably beat it blindfolded. Though, we’re going to need some light before we face the boss. Weiss, if you would?”

Weiss rolled her eyes not caring if the action was noticed or not, then she snapped her fingers and activated one of her abilities. Suddenly a spark jumped from her palm causing the air above her hand to burst into flame and illuminating the party’s surroundings. After a moment the flame dimmed, but remained burning in her palm.  
“There, is that better?” Weiss asked sounding disinterested.

“Yeah it is.” Jaune said in thanks as he properly took in his surroundings and was startled slightly when he caught sight of Jade right behind him. The assassin had been completely silent this whole time so he had almost forgot she was with their group.

Noticing Jaune noticing her, Jade gave their guardian a curt nod. Jaune gave a quick nod of his own in return before focusing on the path ahead of him.

The cave that the party was currently in had grown narrower than Jaune remembered it being when they entered. It was so narrow in fact that if he were to reach out with both hands he’d be able to touch the walls on either side of him at once. That was kind of a problem for him since he wasn’t the biggest fan of dark confined spaces. On top of that the walls were filled with small holes that look akin to insect burrows and just about every surface was coated in dust and webs. Though even all those facts weren’t nearly as unsettling as the still forms he found sprawled out across the floor of the passage.

Laid out before Jaune were the corpses of at least five former adventurers. Unlike the bodies they found in the forest, these bodies still had their skulls mostly intact. Though if anything the state of these bodies were worse. Their flesh hadn’t been eaten so it still hung loose to their bodies and upon closer inspection their flesh was covered in small puncture wounds. What caused the wounds was unknown, but since no other injuries were noticeable on them they were likely the cause of their demise.

“These developers really have a thing for the grotesque.” Jaune declared as he carefully stepped over the bodies in his path.

“While I don’t disagree with you, I think it is unfair to judge their artistic choices.” Weiss cut in. “After all, they’re trying to sell a theme. Wouldn’t it be a bit strange if there were no bodies in what is effectively the den of a monster?”

“I’m more interested in the monsters, not their diet.” Nora chimed in.

“You’re in their diet too you know.” Jaune retorted.

Nora grinned widely and snickered to herself as she replied. “Yeah and they’re in mine, it’s called the cycle of life. You know how it is, survival of the fittest and all that! It wouldn’t be very fun if they weren’t even trying to kill me. That would mean I’m slaughtering innocent monsters, I’m supposed to be the hero not the bad guy!”

“Circle of life Nora.” Weiss corrected. “Also I think you’re forgetting one minor detail. This is their home and we’re the ones barging in to plunder their treasure and kill what is effectively their king.” She deadpanned. “Real heroic there Nora.”

Nora turned to stick her tongue out at the white clad summoner, but Weiss ignored her taunt and continued forward leaving the others no choice but to follow. After a few more minutes of walking through the labyrinth like cave system, the group came out into a wide circular chamber with a massive pit bore into the center of the space.

Jaune being their tank carefully stepped out in front of the group to survey the room. Then he stepped closer to look out into the pit at its center. From a glance the pit appeared to be bottomless, but the stone pathway he spotted that spiraled down into the darkness and the lack of any other exit to this chamber, barring what looked like caved in tunnel on the far side, suggested that the pit was where they were heading.

“Well that looks inviting.” Jaune mused allowed.

“It’s about as inviting as the rest of this place.” Weiss added before turning and walking over to the far wall, momentarily leaving her comrades shrouded in darkness. Once she reached the wall, her flame lit up her surroundings and revealed an old long extinguished torch clenched in the grip of another former adventurer, or at least half of them. The rest of their body looked to be crushed under a pile of rubble.

“We’re going to need a light source for this fight and I can’t keep this fire going and cast healing spells at the same time.” Weiss explained as she reached down to wrench the torch from the corpse. Then with a flick of her wrist the flame that had been in her hand jumped to the torch, lighting it. With the newly lit torch in hand, she walked over to Jaune and presented it to him. “The tank should be the one to hold this. You won’t need to worry about attacking.”

Jaune gave a nod of understanding before grasping the torch. As he gripped it he recalled that Pyrrha had mentioned something about this before when she had given him a run down on this dungeon and its many boss encounters. If he remembered correctly, Dreadscale the Golden Claw the boss of this wing was a giant scorpion monster.

He also recalled that this boss’ lair was incredibly dark, but it wasn’t just to annoy or scare him. Of course it accomplished both of those in spades, but there was a greater purpose. This darkness actually played into Dreadscale’s boss fight. Supposedly having spent so much time in this dark cave system the Golden Claw was quite sensitive to the light. So much so that even the small amount of light his torch could produce would cause him pain and weaken him.

However, holding any type of light source near the boss would also have the unfortunate side effect of royally pissing him off and thus causing him to relentlessly go after whoever was foolish enough to be holding it. Though that would actually work out in their favor, at least as long as the torchbearer was also the one they wanted the boss to focus on. To bad for Jaune that that responsibility would be on the tank.

Taking a deep breath to settle his nerves, Jaune hoisted the torch high and addressed his comrades. “Alright, we ready to do this?”

Jade and Weiss each gave a nod while Nora cheered. “I was born ready, Jaunny boy! Let’s go!” Then with that she hoisted her war maul over her shoulder and began to march down into the pit. Jade and Weiss quickly fell in behind her while Jaune rushed up to lead the way. “Oh and remember guys, since we will be luring this guy back up, we will need to kill all the mobs on the way down. No reason to make our lives anymore difficult by allowing them to flank us.”

“So says the girl who intentionally set off an unknown trap and got herself killed as a result.” Weiss retorted.

“Hey I killed them too! Well close enough anyway.” Nora shot back. Then she grinned before saying. “Besides, you can’t honestly say you didn’t have fun.”

Weiss sighed, but didn’t bother to argue against Nora’s claim. Not having much to add himself, Jaune continued on in silence until he heard a strange high pitched chirping noise coming from nearby. For a moment Jaune wasn’t sure what he was hearing, but then Nora spoke up. “First patrol up ahead.” She said while pointing to a dark corner of the pit a little further down.

Jaune squinted so he could focus on the spot Nora had indicated and indeed he could see something shifting around in the darkness. The path was looping around the outside of the pit so he would need to walk around to reach them. “Shall I engage?” He inquired.

“Na, that’s why we have ourselves a mage, Weiss do the thing!” Nora commanded.

Weiss stepped forward towards the edge and pointed her palm downward towards the enemies below and then without any chant or fan fair spoke. “Fireball!” At her command a small sphere of red hot flame flickered into existence before her hand, launching at her target at incredible speed.

As the ball of flame approached the enemy the light it admitted bathed the pit in more light revealing its target to the party. As Jaune took in the sight of the monsters that had been cloaked in shadow a moment ago, he noted that they were mostly insect and arachnidan type monsters of varying shape and size. There were spiders, scorpions, and even centipedes. All of them were oversized, and all of them horrific in appearance. So it was with some glee he watched the fireball strike the center of their mass and send out a wave of flame igniting them all.

Upon being hit and set aflame, the monsters all screeched in agony while they rapidly clicked their mandibles and snapped their claws as if trying to find and rip apart whatever was responsible for their pain. Before their futile attacks could ever find any purchase, another fireball struck the center of their formation sending out another wave of agony. This time however, the monsters saw where the attack had originated and surged forward up the spiral ramp towards the evil spellcaster that hurt them so. Their bodies were still aflame allowing the party to easily track their movements in the dark.

“Here they come.” Nora said as she took a fighting position between Weiss and the approaching horde. Jaune and Jade did the same, while Weiss continued to bombard the enemy with fire spells.

Within only a few seconds the beasts were upon them, biting and snapping relentlessly. As quickly as he could manage Jaune swung his shield around to brace himself against the assault while Jade and Nora went to work smashing and slicing their way through the weakened enemies.

A few more seconds of intense combat passed and just as quickly as the fight had begun, it had ended. Insects started dropping left and right, without anyone even needing to strike them down. Many of the bug’s deaths were no doubt due to flames that still clung to their motionless bodies. The rest were no more fortunate however as they met their fate at the end of Jade’s blades or Nora’s massive war maul.

The final enemy left standing was an especially oversized scorpion monster that despite being on fire, was still managing to hold its own against both Jade and Nora. At least until it overextended trying to catch Jade with its claws and was struck hard in the flank by Nora shattering more than one of its legs, taking almost all the health it had left, and sending it over the edge of the path and down into the dark pit below screeching the whole way down.

“Well that was easy.” Jaune said as he dared a peek over the edge to watch the burning scorpion strike the ground at least ten stories down. Along the way the light from the scorpions flame allowed him to get a better look at the lower levels and the equally horrific monsters they would soon be facing.

“Yeah well these guys are small fry.” Nora said with a shrug. “They also happen to be weak to fire. It makes things a heck of alot easier for us when we have somebody able to use that weakness against them.”

“Ah I see.” Jaune said. He’d wanted to ask more on that subject since it seemed important, but didn’t want to come off as being too ill informed about the game he was supposedly well versed in. Well at least skill in the leveling category. So since he still had a cover to keep, he kept his mouth shut, and made a mental note to ask Pyrrha about it later.

“Whelp,” Nora began as she stepped away from the edge and swung her war maul up to rest on her shoulder. “We should get going. We still have a lot more baddies to kill before we reach the boss chamber and we don’t want to keep the others waiting on us.”

“Right, let’s go.” Jaune agreed as stepped away from the edge and once again began leading the trek down into the dark unknown.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////

“Keep moving minions, keep killing!” Nora cheered while she laughed like a maniac and spun her war maul in a wide ark to swat way several insect monsters before lifting it above her head and shattering another monster’s exoskeleton under her weapons weight.

“Nora, can we slow down a bit!? This is a bit much!” Jaune pleaded as he struggled to fend off three giant scorpions at once with nothing but his flaming torch.

“Sorry Jaunny, but no can do. The others have already reached the boss so were on the clock now!” Nora shot back as she continued her charge. “Remember though, no survivors!”

All Jaune could do was sigh and continue to desperately try to evade or block the deadly stingers of the beasts before him. He’d already taken a hit from one of those and after it nearly one shot him he wasn’t too keen on having a repeat performance.

At this point their party was about halfway down the pit now and while his team was making good time, he had to retract his earlier statement about this being easy. The deeper they went the stronger and more numerous the enemies became. Funny how much harder things got once even Weiss’ more serious spells started becoming ineffectual.

Of course the increased difficulty didn’t seem to slow down their guild leader. Nora was on a rampage, swatting down just about everything that survived Weiss’ barrage and made it past Jaune’s defenses.

Meanwhile, Jade had taken up a position at the rear of the party. At first Jaune wasn’t sure why their Assassin whose weapons had the shortest reach would put themselves furthest from the front, but the reason became clear when a group of giant spiders scaled the walls of the pit to attack them from behind before they were greeted by her daggers.

Hearing the ensuing melee behind her, Weiss spun on her heels and began blasting the spiders with fireballs. Then once they were dispatched she turned her attention back towards the front. “They’re starting to get creative! Watch the walls, don’t let them sneak up on you!” Weiss shouted in warning.

“Roger!” Jaune shouted assuming her words were for his benefit. Then almost on cue he noticed a set of fuzzy dark legs peeking up from the side of the pit beside him. However he was still engaged with one of the scorpions. The other two had already fallen to his ally’s spells and war maul respectively, but even this one was rough without a real weapon to fight it with. “Crap, spider on our right!” He shouted.

“I got it!” Weiss declared in response before quickly homing in on the offending arachnid. Once she had it in her sights she pointed the flat of her palm in its direction and changed a few quick words causing a glyph to appear before her hand. A moment later and the glyph launched an icy lance in the monsters direction.

Being ill prepared for Weiss’ magical attack, the spider took the lance straight in the face. The damage it took as a result was substantial, though it didn’t do enough damage to kill it out right, but what it did do was freeze it solid. This left the beast completely powerless to prevent the backwards momentum gained from the blow from carrying it off the ledge and down into the pit. A moment later, Weiss and Jaune heard the satisfying sound of ice shattering on the ground below.

“Good shooting Weiss!” Nora praised. “Now could you put some of those mad skills of yours to use over here!?” She pleaded drawing the rest of the parties focus back towards the front.

Nora was currently engaged with about seven monsters at once and it was clear from the red tent to her eyes and the energy radiating off of her that she was in a Death Frenzy. A quick glance up at her angry red health bar confirmed it. It seemed fending off so many opponents at once had proven too much of a hassle for her and so she had abandoned defense all together for a more aggressive approach.

Though nobody could argue against Nora’s reckless strategy’s effectiveness, especially not the unfortunate monsters she was knocking around like punching bags. Many of her opponents were going down with just one or two hits. However there were still many more to go and Death Frenzy wouldn’t last for much longer. Once it ran out she would be left defenseless just like with the geists earlier.

“You really are hopeless.” Weiss said before letting out a sigh beginning another incantation. This time a green aura spread out around her before being transferred to their leader. Within moments the healing magic had restored Nora’s health by over half.

“Thanks a bunch dock!” Nora cheered as she proceeded to lay into the enemy once again with renewed vigor. She was then promptly rejoined by the rest of her team ending in a quick and decisive victory.

Now with the group firmly in their groove, the rest of the fight down to the bottom of the pit went by without much incident. “Finally, we’re at the bottom!” Jaune cheered as the pit floor finally came into view, but then he cringed when he noticed the pile of twisted and broken monster bodies spread out across the center. “Well they’ve seen better days.”

“That serves them right for getting in our way, now come on the boss chamber is this way.” Nora chimed in as she marched passed Jaune towards the far wall which was still shrouded in shadow. Jaune and the others quickened their pace to keep up with their eager leader.

As Jaune approached, the light from his torch revealed the first man made thing he had seen so far in this place, a pair of massive reinforced wooden doors. The doors looked quite worn and rusted, but they still seemed like they would be strong enough to take a few good blows from a battering-ram. Also the new looking padlock chained to handles promised that it wouldn’t open easily. “How’re we getting in? Is there a key around here?” Jaune asked as his eyes began to scan their surroundings.

Nora giggled. “That’s the easy part, Jade if you would.” Nora said before shooting a glance back towards their assassin.

Jade gave Nora a curt nod before stepping forward and pulling a set of small tools from her sleeves. Without delay she went to work picking the lock.

“So there is no key then?” Jaune asked sounding confused. “Does that mean you need an assassin to fight this boss?”

“No, there is a Key.” Weiss replied. “However, we would need to go down a long side chamber a few stories up and fight this giant spider mini-boss to get it. I don’t know about you, but I prefer the path of least resistance.”

Jaune gave a nod of agreement. This dungeon was hard enough as is, so he didn’t see any reason to make this any more difficult when it wasn’t necessary. With that cleared up, Jaune turned his attentions back towards the wooden doors just in time to hear a metallic click and watch as the metal padlock and a bundle of Iron chains fell to the floor at their feet.

“Good work Jade.” Nora said as she stepped forward and shoved the doors open to reveal a dark chamber of what seemed to be considerable size. It was difficult to grasp this rooms full dimensions since the light from Jaune’s torch couldn’t reach the ceiling or any of the walls besides the one at their backs. When Jaune stepped past the threshold and began to make his way towards the center Nora spoke again. “Tread carefully Jaunny. This one likes to jump out at you.”

Jaune gave a wary nod as his eyes scanned the darkness in search of any life signs. Though as he expected, it was difficult to make out much of anything beyond a few feet of where he was standing and within that space there wasn’t much to see.

Feeling a bit daring Jaune took a few more steps forward into the unknown, only to be greeted by more dark silence. So he took a few more steps, but still found nothing. Now feeling a little uncertain he turned back towards his comrades in hopes of getting some guidance, but stead of their faces greeting him he saw what appeared to be giant golden stalactite hovering in the air between them. “That hadn’t been there before.” He thought allowed.

“Jaune look out!” Nora warned just before the golden stalactite lifted up and turned to point at Jaune. Then it thrust forward like it meant to impale him.

“Ahhhh!” Jaune screamed as he raised his shield and tried to sidestep the gilded stalactite. While he wasn’t fast enough to avoid being hit all together, the brunt of the blow was deflected by his shield. However, the force of the blow was greater than he had been ready for causing him to stumble and fall to his back.

Now from Jaune’s new position on the floor he had a clear view of the thing that had just knocked him on his ass. It wasn’t just a gravity deifying stalactite as he had first surmised, though when he really thought about a floating stalactite wouldn’t have made any sense to begin with. After all, it was the fact that it was connected to the ceiling that made it a stalactite in the first place. Not that any of that mattered right now.

The one thing that Jaune was sure was important was the fact that there was a long dark limb attached to mysterious golden object and that limb led up to something on the ceiling. Hanging far above the floor and just outside the reach of his torch’s light, Jaune could just make out several glowing red orbs at the center of what he imagined to be a bulking mass.

Jaune could also just make out the sounds of chitting not unlike the sounds the mobs from earlier were making when they snapped their claws and mandibles together. It was quite gross, but even more unsettling. As Jaune pondered this, the red orbs began to turn and jitter, and it was only once they had all turned to focus on him did Jaune finally realize what they were. They were eyes, big hateful eyes, and they were glaring straight at him.

What this all meant wasn’t hard to piece together, but staring up into the abyss and then having it stare back at you with such malice made thought in general rather difficult. It was at that moment that the golden object which Jaune now realized was a giant stinger rose back up and was orientating itself for another strike. “Dre-Dreadscale!” Jaune yelled as his survival instincts kicked in allowing him to move.

Jaune quickly threw his body into a roll to dodge out of the way just in time to avoid the massive stinger as it impacted the ground where he had just been. Then he made sure to snatch up his torch as he scrambled back to his feet and readied himself for the next strike. He didn’t have to wait long as the beast clinging to the ceiling let out a screech and ripped its tail out of the ground and launched another attack.

Jaune once again braced for the impact, but it proved unnecessary as Nora literally leaped into action. “Not today buster!” Nora yelled out as she met the stinger in mid air and slammed her war maul into its flank knocking it off course and causing a small damage indicator to pop up.

“Thanks Nora!” Jaune declared as his guild leader fell back down to earth beside him.

“No problem Jaunny!” Nora said cheerfully as she gave Jaune a good smack on the back. Then she directed her attention on their opponent who was still looming far above them its focus locked onto Jaune’s still burning torch. “Hey what’s the hold up!? Why don’t you come down here and fight us fair and square!?”

Having not only been denied its right to kill the torch bearer that’d dared to awaken him, but being struck, and pestered in the process. Dreadscale was not pleased about this situation and it let its displeasure be known by releasing a deafening screech filled with unbridled fury. However its screech was cut short as a fireball lanced up from down below to explode across its face and igniting parts of its exoskeleton.

“Good one Weiss, that got his attention!” Nora laughed.

Dreadscale didn’t seem to find it nearly as amusing as the pink clad hammer wielder and was now dead set on silencing her. With that in mind it began to shift its massive body so it could decent the wall and take the fight directly to its prey. Seeing this happening Jaune decided to speak up. “Umm, it’s coming! What do we do now!?”

“That’s easy Jaunny,” Nora began to explain before pausing to give Jaune a mischievous look and breaking into a mad sprint for the doors they had entered from. “We get the heck out of here!”

“Nora, what did we say about rushing off on your own!?” Weiss hissed as she made to follow their retreating leader.

For a moment Jaune was left dumbstruck, his mind was still racing to catch up to everything happening around him and having little success. However, as she neared the threshold of the boss chamber door Jade turned to see Jaune still idling and quickly beckoned him to follow. That combined with the angry screeching that was drawing closer proved more than enough to break Jaune free of his funk. Unfortunately it proved too late as the moment Jaune made for the exit, the massive arthropod dropped down from above landing directly in his path.

“Jaune!” Weiss and Nora cried out from behind the beast.

Jaune let out a cry of his own as well as he was halted in his tracks, only his was of despair. Then he cried out again when he was forced to raise his shield to absorb a blow from one of the boss’ massive claws. Of course just like the case had been with the beast’s tail, the blow had been more than he was ready to handle, thus causing him to be knocked back several feet. To his credit he managed to avoid being put on his ass this time around. That was a fact that the boss noticed and seemed intent on rectifying and raised its stinger for another strike.

Seeing his opponent preparing for another attack and still being very much doubtful of his odds, Jaune called out this his comrades. “Hey guys, do you think I could I get a little help here!? Please!?”

“You got it Jaunny!” Nora yelled back before turning to Jade. “Jade we got an ally soldier trapped behind enemy lines, requesting emergency evacuation!”

Jade said nothing as usual, but promptly gave Nora a crisp salute before popping out of existence in a puff of smoke. Seeing her friend disappear, Nora quickly looked back to where Jaune was. It was then that she saw Jade pop back into existence beside their blond comrade just long enough to grab him by the arm flicker back out of the visible spectrum taking Jaune with her.

A moment later and Jade and Jaune both rematerialized on the other side of the door. Jade wore a stoic expression, while Jaune was wide eyed and looking around frantically trying to get his bearings back. Once he realized he had made it out safe he let out a sigh of relief before speaking. “Thanks Jade, I owe you one.”

Jade shrugged in response then directed everyone’s attention back towards the boss that was now screeching mindlessly and looked almost lost.

“It lost sight of the fire so now it is confused.” Nora explained. “Hey Weiss, you want to remind this thing why you shouldn’t turn your back on the enemy?” She added with a grin.

“Gladly.” Weiss replied as she extended her right hand and began to chant in a different language. Before long, flames had started to gather in the palm of her hand taking the form of a fireball. As the chanting continued, the fireball grew larger and larger, the flames bright red and yellow hues began to give way to blues and whites as its heat became more intense.

Finally as her chanting reach its crescendo, the light and heat of the fireball had become so intense that it could not go unnoticed by the boss and it spun around to face its opponent’s. If the smirk that came over Weiss’ face when it did was anything to go by, this was a mistake. “Flames of the Divine White Dragon!” Weiss roared as she let loose her attack.

From the palm of the summoner’s hands the massive ball of white and blue flame sprang forth, twisting and taking no definite shape as it shot through the air towards its intended target. No longer was it just a ball of fire, but instead it took the form of an elongated serpent not unlike the dragon’s from ancient Asian mythology. As it approached the scorpion goliath, the serpent like dragon opened its jaw wide and from within its maw its own burst of white flame shot forth engulfing the boss. Then the serpent dove into the flames becoming one with them before erupting in a towering inferno that reach the ceiling of the boss chamber.

Jaune watch in awe as the formidable creature writhed in agony and a long series of sizable hit markers popped up with each game tick. Those white flames were practically eating it alive. He knew that it was weak to flame, but this was crazy. He had just never seen a spell that powerful before, not even the huge wind storm their mage had summoned during the Alpha fight could compare. “Well that seems like overkill,” He finally said before issuing the question he really wanted answered. “What was that spell anyway?”

“Huh? What do you mean?” Weiss asked sounding confused.

“I’m not very familiar with summoners. Was that your ultimate perhaps?” Jaune quickly replied.

Weiss shrugged. “Sort of, summoners like all mage classes in this game are able to pull from a list of ultimate or rather divine spells in battle. While we can use any of these spells whenever we want, almost all of the spells from that tier share a cool down. So it does function in a similar fashion to other class’ ultimate abilities.” She explained.

“Oh, that’s kind of cool.” Jaune said as he hummed in thought.

“Yeah, that is real cool. Now if we’re done with the chit chat, I think it is about time we got a move on!” Nora cut in as she grabbed both Jaune and Weiss by the arms and began dragging them towards the ramp leading up and out of the dungeon.

“Wait, what about the boss?” Jaune questioned.

“Oh I wouldn’t worry about him.” She said before glancing back towards the boss chamber door just in time to see the frame explode outward as the massive beast haphazardly forced its hulking body threw it. Then its red eyes quickly zeroed on their retreating party. Letting out a screech it began to give chase at an alarming pace. “He is right behind us!”

“How is it going to follow us though, there is no way he will be able to fit on this slope!?” Jaune commented as he looked at the beast below and the spiraling pathway that they were currently taking. Nora looked like she was about to answer, but instead decided to just point him back towards the beast. When Jaune glanced back it was to see the monster scaling the side of the slope just like the spiders had earlier in their descent. “Oh, never mind.” He added with a nervous laugh.

With that Jaune turned and averted his gaze from the beast on their tail and focused on running his ass off. A few moments later and he heard their mage call out to him from behind. “Jaune is that thing gaining on us!?” She asked.

Jaune could hear the beast drawing closer. He didn’t need to look back, didn’t want to either, but like the fool he was he did just that. Just as he had suspected, the giant arachnid was not far behind them and would like be upon them in a few seconds. “He’s closing in!” He warned.

“Alright team, begin evasive maneuvers!” Nora commanded.

“Did you say evasive maneuvers? This slope isn’t very wide you know? What kind of evasive maneuvers can we even perform!?” Jaune inquired just before the boss peeked over the incline and tried to take him out with one its claws. Jaune screamed and dove to avoid the attack.

“No not like that Jaunny boy!” Nora declared before giving a nod to Jade who returned it, then she popped an ability that seemed to double her running speed. Before long she had completely broken away from the pack. “See we do it like that!” She said as if it explained everything.

“I can’t run that fast Nora!” Jaune shot back. “And I’m fairly sure neither can you!”

“True,” Nora said with a shrug. “But I don’t need to!” She declared before she hopped forwards and swept around Weiss’ legs and back and yanked her up off her feet hoisting her up like a princess. “Pardon me my lady!” She said and to Jaune’s surprise the only sign of disapproval the mage showed was to cross her arms and huff. “Follow my lead Jaunny!” Nora declared right before she activated her jump ability and shot off from the side of the slope clearing the wide expanse in between and landing safely about a story above just in time to see Jade zip by her.

“Well that is quite the shortcut!” Jaune mused before activating his own ability and going for it. While his own jump wasn’t nearly as well executed, since he managed to slam himself into the wall on the upper level, it still served to get some distance between himself and the monster trying to rip him to pieces.

“Good work,” Nora said as she offered a hand to get Jaune back to his feet. Jaune accepted and noted that Nora was still cradling Weiss in her other hand. “Now let’s keep going!”

“Right!” Jaune declared as the both broke into another sprint. After a moment Jaune took a quick glance back and saw that they had put a fair bit of distance between themselves and the boss, which was good, but it was also a bit worrying. “Hey won’t it be bad if we get too far away?” He asked this because he knew that distancing yourself from monsters in this game was usually the easiest way to make them to lose interest in you.

“No problem, we got a plan for that!” Nora said before looked down at the mage in her arms. “That is if you wouldn’t mind my lady!?”

While Jaune could see Weiss’ face behind that helmet of hers, he could just tell she was rolling her eyes in there. Though, the mage quickly complied and turned her body over in Nora’s arms so she could point an open palm back at the boss. “Fireball!” She roared as a flaming salvo exploded across her target’s flank. The boss reacted as one would expect, all fury and snapping mandibles, before it redoubled its efforts to chase the invaders down.

“Well that worked! Perhaps a bit too well though!” Jaune shouted as he watched the scorpion steadily start to gain on them once again. The whole time keeping an eye on his jump abilities cooldown timer and the moment it hit zero he announced it to the group. Then without further delay he propelled himself to the next level.

“Alright, hold on tight princess!” Nora declared as she made to follow their blond comrade. Unfortunately the boss had managed to catch up at this point and used its long stinger to strike at Nora while she was in the middle of her jump. Nora saw the attack coming, but being caught in mid air made evading it quite difficult. On top of that, she was hoisting Weiss in her arms. That meant she couldn’t properly hold her weapon to deflect the attack either.

Luckily for Nora, Weiss also saw the attack coming and had her covered. Literally in this case, since she quickly deployed a defensive barrier that was able to knock the boss’ tail off course. However, the force of the blow had a similar effect on them killing their momentum and as Nora came out of her jump, they were still several feet below the ledge they had been aiming for with no way to bridge the gap.

“That’s not good!” Nora declared as her body began to fall back down towards the pit. Thinking fast she called out to Jaune who had already made it over safely. “Hey Jaune come over to the ledge quick!”

Hearing her call Jaune did as instructed and ran over to stand above the two falling girls. Seeing his friends begin to plummet caused a panicked look to come over the boy’s face. “Weiss, Nora!” He called down.

“Here catch!” Nora shouted as she used all of her strength to throw their white clad mage upward straight towards Jaune.

“Wait what!?” Weiss and Jaune both let out surprised cries as Weiss was flung upward and slammed straight into Jaune’s chest causing him to stumble backward and fall over. Fortunately that was enough to insure Weiss made it up.

Meanwhile Nora had begun her freefall and was hurtling right for the mouth of the scorpion. For a moment it looked like the fearless berserker wasn’t going to make it, but their local trickster had other plans. Jade came out of her run beside Jaune and Weiss and quickly switched direction leaping from the spiraling ledge, only instead of trying to gain altitude, she straightened out and went into a complete nose dive towards her falling friend.

“Jade!” Nora called out as she saw her ally coming and realized what she had planned. Nora quickly spread herself out maximizing her surface area in hopes that it would slow her decent even a little and allow Jade to catch up. To her relief the move paid off and before long Jade was right on top of her reaching out her hand for Nora to take. Nora reached back stretching as far as her armor would allow, but the boss must’ve felt left out because it too reach out one of its oversized claws intent on snatching both girls out of the air and crushing them to dust.

Nora and Jade flailed around wildly, each trying to get a grip on the other while they continued to plummet and the great golden claw of Dreadscale drew closer and closer at an alarming speed. Finally after no small amount of struggle the tips of their fingers met and they latch onto each other like their real lives depended on it. A second later and Jade had pulled Nora into a firm grip and it wasn’t a second too soon since Dreadscale’s claw had now filled their vision and was poised to clamp down on the both of them. Jade had other plans and vanished in mid air taking Nora with her right before the claw snapped shut where they had been.

A moment later and they both rematerialized on the upper ledge that Nora had failed to reach earlier where their comrades were still waiting on them. “Thanks Jade, you’re the best!” Nora cheered as she pulled the green clad assassin into a tight hug. Then once she was satisfied she glanced over the edge to see that the boss had once again continued its ascent in pursuit of them and so she turned to address the group. “Alright, guys let’s keep going just like we have been! We’re not that far from the top now!”

“Got it!” Jaune and Weiss declared as they made to continue their uphill trek.

Just as Nora had promised, the group managed to reach the top of the pit without any real incident, however the boss had managed to gain some ground on them and wouldn’t be far behind so there was no time for celebration. The moment Jaune found his feet on level ground again he immediately made to run back through the maze like tunnels they had entered from, but Nora caught him by the back of his armor.

“Nora what’re you doing!?” Jaune asked sounding slightly panicked.

“Not that way Jaunny! The boss won’t be able to fit through there!” Nora explained.

“What?” Jaune muttered before looking back at the small tunnel and recalling how cramped it was. “Wait, if we can’t go that way then where do we go!? There aren’t any other exits in here!” He questioned.

“Would you guys hurry up and get over here!” Weiss called out and when Jaune turned to see her, he saw that she was now positioned on the far side of the pit beside the large pile of rubble. “I’m going to need a hand getting through this!”

“Coming Weiss!” Nora cheered as she ran around the pit dragging Jaune behind her. The moment their red haired leader came close, Weiss cast a stat buff spell on her. “There, that give you the extra punch you need.”

“Thanks a bunch, now it’s time to punch!” She roared as she stepped towards the rubble and hoisted her hammer high over her head. Then right when it looked like she was about to swing she paused. “Hey I made a rime! I didn’t even mean to do it this time!”

“Nora that is nice and all, but now is not the time!” Weiss hissed.

“Sorry,” Nora said with a laugh. “It just gives me a feeling that is so sublime, and I don’t feel like that should be a crime.”

“Nora!” Weiss roared as the boss appeared from the pit and began to scan the chamber for its prey. Since the only light in the room was coming from their direction it didn’t take long for it to zero in on them.

“Sorry!” Nora said again before refocusing on the task at hand. She pulled back her warmaul and popped a few of her stat boosting abilities and focused all of her might into her next swing. “Pow!” She roared as she brought her hammer down with a mighty crash. The whole cave shook with the force of the blow and a large section of the heavy rubble that had been blocking their path crumbled and was blown away, leaving an opening big enough for them to squeeze through. “Come on guys, this way!” She commanded as she rushed through the opening and waved for her companions to follow.”

Once on the other side the group broke into a mad sprint. The tunnel they now found themselves in appeared to be a fairly wide and basically a straight shot. Jaune also noticed that this area unlike the rest of the cavern had clear signs of a human presence. The walls were more even and there were wooden support beams every couple of feet. He even saw what looked like an overturned mining cart with a few discarded pickaxes beside it. It was clear that this was some sort of mining operation gone horribly wrong.

Jaune was broken from his ponderings when a loud crash sounded behind him. A quick look back at the hole they had made and he could see that the boss had crashed into the entrance and was trying to force its way through, but wasn’t quite fitting. “It’s stuck!” He declared.

“It won’t be for long!” Weiss declared before she launched another fireball back into the face of the massive scorpion, causing it to reel back and screech. Then with renewed figure it surged forward, thrashing with its claws to smash through the rubble and allow its entry. “There, just needed some motivation.” She deadpanned.

“Light up ahead!” Nora declared as she pointed towards the end of the tunnel. “We’re almost out of here!”

“By the way, where does this tunnel even lead!?” Jaune asked. “Where do we go once we’re outside!?”

Weiss was the one to answer. “This tunnel leads right through the mountain, once were on the outside we’ll be right next to the ruins!”

Jaune gave a nod and continued to rush forward out into the light of day. Just as Weiss had said, he now found himself near the base of a mountain and laid out before was an old stone bridge leading out to what appeared to be some ancient ruins. The ruins were suspended high above the ground by huge stone pillars and a system of stone bridges that went in every which way. Whatever these ruins use to be was lost to him, perhaps some sort of temple for worship or perhaps a fortress for war. Either way, the structure looked less than inviting.

“There, it’s the ruins!” Nora cheered.

“Where are the others!? They should be getting here by now!?” Weiss inquired.

Jade bumped Weiss’ shoulder to get her attention and then pointed up towards a cliff face on the opposing side of the ruins. Jaune and Nora also followed her finger and saw the other half of their group leaping down from the cliff before jamming their weapons into the hard rock behind them. This allowed them to break into a sort of down hill slide to bleed off their momentum.

“Well there they are, but what about the boss!?” Jaune asked. Then right on queue a loud bird like screech ripped through the air as a jet black avian creature of unbelievable size flew out from above the cliff. Though it was still a fair distance away Jaune could still clearly make out the name listed above the massive beast, Nevermore the Black Wing.

Once the bird boss was right above Jaune’s allies it began to swoop down onto its fleeing prey. Luckily Pyrrha was able to kick off the wall and deliver a solid shield slam into the beast’s beak, diverting its attack and allowing the rest to land safely; Pyrrha did the same about a second later. However, the boss was quick to recover from the blow and had begun to circle back for another go.

“It looks like they might need some help!” Jaune declared while taking in this scene.

“They’re not the only ones.” Weiss chimed in while directing a thumb towards the boss that was still very much hot on their tail. “We’ll stick to the plan and meet up with them in the center of the ruins. Then we can worry about who needs what.”

“Are those ruins even safe to fight in!?” Jaune inquired. “They don’t look very stable!”

“They’re a little crumbly, but what’s so bad about that!? This is a game and destructible environments will always make a game more fun!” Nora declared gleefully.

“I would usually be inclined to agree with you Nora, but not when we’re going to be standing on them.” Jaune whined, but his complaints fell on deaf ears. With a shake of his head Jaune and the rest of his group raced onward into the ruins.


	14. ROR Part 14: Players and Pieces Part 2

Even with two savage boss monsters hot on their tails, it hadn't taken long for both Pyrrha and Nora's teams to traverse their respective sections of the ruins and reach their center. The center of the ruins themselves was a sort of large circler stone structure with a domed roof. It had large stone pillars acting as supports and all the bridges that crisscross the area seemed to feed through it making it into some sort of hub area. If one were to compare these ruins to real world architecture one might draw comparisons with ancient Roman structures.

On the interior of the ruined structure sat several pedestals, each with a fist sized golden chess piece resting upon it. These artifacts seemed to be resonating with each other filling the room with an ominous glow. Most of the crusaders instantly recognized them as the relics that enabled the dungeons hard mode.

Now indoors and reunited with their allies everyone took a sigh of relief before Pyrrha gave a certain blond guildmate a wide smile and waved at him. "Jaune, you made it!"

"Pyrrha!" Jaune shot back choosing to ignore the surprise in his friends tone.

"Nora!" Nora cut in as she threw herself forwards to latch her arms around her fellow red haired warrior companion. "Did you miss me Pyrrha!?" She asked.

Pyrrha rolled her eyes before patting her friend on the head and answering. "Hello to you too Nora, and yes I missed you too."

Nora giggled and gave her friend a wide smile before their groups little reunion was rudely cut short by the sounds of shatter stone and monstrous shrieks. A quick look back in the direction that Nora's group had come from showed them that Dreadscale had just smashed its way through the entrance and was now readying itself to attack. A screech from above also promised that Nevermore hadn't forgotten about them either.

Nora quickly disentangled herself from Pyrrha and drew forth her weapon. "Everyone to arms!" She shouted and the others quickly followed suit forming up into a loose battle line. Figuring he wouldn't need it anymore Jaune also discarded his still burning torch so he could draw his trusty sword and he gave it a few quick practice swings just to get in the mood. He certainly felt good now that he was properly armed again.

"Are we all ready to do this!?" Nora asked.

"Hold up!" Monkey King cut in before popping a few abilities and in doing so, buffing most of the party. "Okay, now I think were ready!"

Each of the Violet Crusaders let out their own battlecry as Dreadscale's claws came down on them and the roof of the structure was ripped away as Nevermore slammed its body into it. Jaune and Pyrrha rushed forward in unison to block each of Dreadscale's strikes, while the others made to move out of the way of following debris or helping others to do the same.

Nora didn't bother dodging the falling rubble and instead struck out with her warmaul to deflect several of the large stones. Then she noticed that Dreadscale was winding back with its tail to strike at Yang who was already charging towards the boss with her own claws ready to rend flesh. Nora quickly activated her leap ability to volt over her charging ally and directly into the path of the boss' strike to knock it aside.

Yang made good use of her ally's interference by leaping onto Dreadscale's head and activating an ability to allow her to unleash a savage flurry of blow. Her arms seemed to move faster than the human eye could track and her Morning Glories sang as they bit into boss' thick hide, each blow dealing a not insignificant among of damage. Finally as her combo came to an end Dreadscale ripped its claw free from Jaune and tried to snap her in two. Yang was prepared for this however and easily clambered over the claw as it tried to close in around her, then she drove both of her claws into one of the boss' large red eyes.

Dreadscale let out a horrific shriek of pain as a large critical hit marker appeared above it. Then it began to thrash and buck wildly in an attempt to dislodge his attacker. During this thrashing it even spun its body like a top turning a completely three-hundred and sixty degrees in about two seconds not only tossing the blonde berserker that had harmed him off but also knocking everyone else that was near him backward.

Pyrrha stumbled for a moment before managing to right herself. Then she looked towards her right to see that Jaune had been knocked over and was currently struggling to get back to his feet. She then made to move in his direction and offer her aid, but was blocked when a hail storm of large black feathers rained down from above her.

Pyrrha instantly recognized this attack as an attack belonging to the boss Nevermore. She also knew that the quills of the feathers were as sharp as arrow heads and could be fired with enough force to embed them in solid stone. They were not to be taken lightly. With that in mind she quickly hopped backward just in time to avoid the first volley and promptly raised her shield over her head to deflect a potential follow up attack.

The attack didn't come so she carefully put some distances between herself and Dreadscale while she scanned the skies for her attacker and it didn't take long for her to spot her quarry. High above the melee taking place around her Nevermore the Black Wing gracefully danced through the air only stopping momentarily to give its wings a mighty flap and launching a barrage of feathers down on her allies. On the receiving end of its current attacks were Weiss, Blake, Ruby, Sun, and Jade. They in turn were all trying to launch a counter offensive while evading the boss' feathery onslaught.

Pyrrha was pleased to see that Ruby was scoring a few good hits on her avian adversary with her sniper rifle and as expected Weiss was holding her own with her icy lances. However Monkey King's long range offensive spells were quite limited so he was focused on offering support. Also while their assassins Jade and Blake could easily use shadow step to get above the boss and attack it at close range, they seemed reluctant to do so.

Pyrrha had to assume that Jade and Blake's reluctance was largely because of how shadow step worked. If they use it to teleport to a new location, then they would only be given a few seconds to use it again, that is of course if they wanted to teleport back to their previous location before the ability went on cooldown.

On top of that as a winged boss Nevermore was faster than most monsters in this dungeon and if it managed to get a hold of either Blake or Jade after they shadow stepped into mid air, they wouldn't be able to step back. This is because the ability would try to teleport the boss with them and bosses were generally immune to most teleportation effects. That was not ideal since as one would expect weather it's a game or not, a single land mammal was at quite the disadvantage when trying to fight a bird in the sky.

So instead of getting up close and personal, Jade fell back on her throwing knifes while Blake made used her fireball jutsu. Jade was managing to land some of her attacks, but to little effect. Her throwing knifes were meant more to for dispatching weaker foes after all.

Blake for her part was having even less success. While her fire jutsu was about as powerful as a mage's it lacked the necessary travel speed to strike a fast moving enemy at such a range. Though it did still at least caused the boss to evade on occasion instead of launching an attack of its own which was a win as far as she was concerned.

Self preservation can at times, be just as much a hindrance as it is an asset. A fact that was prove when right after Nevermore had managed to dodge one of Blake's fireballs it caught one of Ruby's explosive rounds right between the eyes.

The boss screeched as its head reeled back and was blinded by hot flames. A second later and another jet of flame caught it in the side curtsey of Blake. When boss managed to shake its vision clear and it tried to focus on the assassin that had just burned it, she was no where to be seen, and instead a twin pair of throwing knifes filled its vision. When the blades struck home, the beast was blinded once again and Weiss and Ruby were able to continue their barrage unabated.

Their freedom was short lived however as Nevermore began to wildly sweep its wings back and forth. Not only did this maneuver manage to deflect just most of the attacks being sent its way, but each flap of its wings sent a salvo deadly flying down on his attackers.

"Shoot!" Weiss hissed as she was forced to abandon her offensive strategy to avoid being turned into a pincushion. While doing so she figured it was a good chance to take in her surroundings and see how her allies were holding up.

Jade and Blake were fairing about as well as one would've expected of them. They had a few nicks here and there, but had yet to take any direct hits so their health bars were in the green. Sun had taken up a more defensive stance and was focusing on deflecting the feathers as they came, but was fairly pinned down as a result meaning he couldn't be counted on for much else until this attack ended. Ruby was the most worrying. The girl could be as stubborn and reckless as Nora at times and was showing it since she had abandoned defense all together to keep up her attack.

The boss must've noticed Ruby's efforts as well since its feather attacks that had been coming in completely random spurts up till now, had started to become far more focused. They were all homing in on the red clad marksmen, leaving her little room to breathe let alone evade them, and it didn't seem like she even realized it yet. Weiss had noticed though, and she wasn't going to stand by and watch.

"Ruby, look out you dolt!" Weiss warned as she quickly cast a barrier spell directly above Ruby's head.

"Huh? AHHHH!" Ruby yelped in surprise as the barrier appeared above her and then again when it saved her from cut to ribbons by a violet squall of projectile plumes. However it was only just barely, because as the last feather struck the shield it shattered to pieces and the quill still manage dig into Ruby's shoulder. "Ouch!" She cried out as she stumbled backward grasping at the quill that had jammed into her.

"That should teach you to pay attention!" Weiss reprimanded as she cast a quick minor healing spell on Ruby allowing her to recoup some of the health she had just lost. "Now get yourself together we still have work to do!"

"Yeah sorry, that was my bad!" Ruby apologized as she managed to wrench the feather free and finally felt the healing spell take its effect. She always loved this feeling, it was always so refreshing. "You got a plan Weiss?!" She asked.

"We need a tank!" Weiss shot back before turning to see Pyrrha looking her way and then she looked a little bit past her to see Jaune still engaging Dreadscale. "Pyrrha, we need you to draw Nevermore's fire! Can you do that!?"

Pyrrha gave a curt nod before she spoke. "Leave it to me!" Then she marched forward to stand beside Weiss and Ruby while the boss above them finally cleared its vision and began to steady itself. Now the beast's black wings were no longer raining death down upon them, but they still offered the promise of more to come so none lowered their guard.

Just as the hero's expected their break was not long lived as Nevermore went right back on the attack starting with the beast breathing in a deeply. Then it released a high pitched screech that seemed to vibrate the air itself creating a concussive wave that exploded outward in all directions with enough force to shatter what was lift of the stone ceiling.

"Brace yourselves!" Pyrrha shouted in warning to everyone as she cast a barrier on herself and threw her body in front of Weiss and Ruby.

The sound based shockwave struck less than a second later with all the force of a hurricane. Along with sending earsplitting agony through everyone's skulls, it shook the ground violently and dealt a small chunk of damage to everyone caught in its wake.

Thanks to Pyrrha's quick thinking, Weiss, Ruby, and herself managed to come out of it with little more than a ringing in their ears. While Jade and Blake both shadow stepped behind stone pillars to act as cover allowing them to avoid the brunt of the attack. Monkey King however wasn't fast enough to reach cover in time, so instead he activated his Iron Skin ability to soften the blow.

Unfortunately, Pyrrha's half of the group wasn't the only ones within Nevermore's attack radius. Jaune, Nora, and Yang who were all still busy engaging Dreadscale were caught off guard and took the soundwave straight on knocking them off their feet and leaving them stunned.

"Ouchy! Hey a little warning next time would be nice guys!" Nora shouted as she clawed at her still ringing ears. Realizing that wasn't going to help, since A she had heard it, and B the ringing sound was playing through the speakers in her VR Headset she quickly changed tactics by reaching for her sound controls and turning them all the way down. Only then once the world was silent did she begin getting back to her feet.

"Actually she Pyrrha did warn you!" Weiss pointed out. However her correction literally fell on deaf ears.

Meanwhile Jaune was dealing with a rather large problem of his own. He currently found himself staring up at a very angry very dangerous scorpion with every intention of skewering him and he had very few defensive options left at his disposal. As the boss lifted his claw for a crushing blow, he decided that his best bet would be to raise his shield and pray.

Unfortunately the gods that governed the realm didn't see fit to aid him and thus he felt the full weight of boss' tail fall upon him. Even though he tactically blocked the blow, the force behind it was great enough to crush him into the stone floor and take away nearly half of his remaining hit points putting him firmly in the red zone.

"Aahhhh! Okay, alright, that smarts a bit!" Jaune howled as red hot agony shot through his back and arms. For the first time since he started playing he cursed ROR's realism and for a moment he had to fight the urge to rip his VR headset off and chuck it across the room. The pain may not be real and he knew it would dissipate before long, but that didn't he enjoyed being hurt.

Dreadscale seemed pleased by his prey's reaction, but of course he was far from satisfied with just wounding the warrior. It wanted to pound him into the ground and spill his blood. To that end, it raised its second claw up to for another strike.

"Not this time pal!" Jaune roared as he popped his defensive barrier ability that had just come off cooldown. With a reverberating gong the boss' claw impacted the barrier and bounced right back into its face with enough force to throw the creature off balance. Seeing his chance to put some distance between himself and his oversized opponent, Jaune promptly roll back to his feet and broke into an unsteady run.

Dreadscale shrieked as it shook off its own blow and when it saw the form of its prey fleeing the shriek intensified along with its boiling rage. With the intention of pouncing on the retreating warrior, Dreadscale lowered its stance to build tension in its limbs. Then when finally attempted its jump, its body only managed to cover a few feet before something snag its hind legs. All of Dreadscale's momentum came to a dead stop right before his hide slammed into the ground just a few feet shy of Jaune.

Hearing the meaty thud, Jaune spun back around to see Dreadscale struggling to reach out and crush him between his claws. Luckily for him however, there seemed to be something holding him back. A quick look behind the behemoth revealed that Yang and Nora had both gotten behind it and had each of his hind legs in a death grip. For a moment he couldn't believe they were managing to hold the beast back, but then he saw the red gleam in their eyes and the furious aura that surrounded them. A telling sign that they were both currently in a berserker rage.

"Thanks guys, you really saved my bacon!" Jaune yelled.

"It's my pleasure Jaunny!" Nora cheered.

"No problem, you can just pay me back whenever." Yang said jokingly before looking towards her guild leader. "So you want to go with the old one two?"

Nora grinned viciously. "Sounds good to me!"

"Alright," Yang said as she adjusted her grip on the boss while Nora did the same. "Heave!"

"Ho!" Nora shouted as Yang and her yanked the boss backward with all their might. Dreadscale tried to dig its claws into the stone work to gain some leverage, but it was too no avail. The boss was ripped off its legs and was flipped head over heels before smashing into one of the few remaining wall. The boss shrieked in agony as it crashed into the stone surface and fell back down to the ground, then before it could recover the wall gave way burying it under a pile of masonry.

"Hey, that worked better than I expected." Yang said feeling pleased with herself.

"Yeah, but it's not dead yet and that's not going to hold it." Nora said in turn before looking back towards the rest of her party who were still engaging Nevermore. "Everyone regroup, were too scattered! Weiss we need heals!" She commanded.

With their leaders new orders given, everyone paused for the briefest moment to consider before quickly spring back into action. Jade and Blake burst from their cover to aid Ruby and Weiss in laying down some cover fire while the group formed up towards the center of the structure. Within seconds they had created a much tighter formation that was not unlike the one they had started with.

Then once everyone was gathered together, Weiss began to chant, her words gained weight as her body shined with a brilliant green light. "I call upon the pillar of the nine realms! The root of the world and bearer of the heavens! World Tree Yggdrasil, I summon thee!"

In response to Weiss' words the ground began to shake as massive green glyph appeared on the ground at the center of her team's formation. The glyph depicting a grand tree branches stretching out in all directions and rapping around nine circles that rounded the glyph's boarders.

When the green light was at its brightest, the glyphs erupted. Foliaged poured out across the floor overtake the stone, roots cut through rock in all directions, and a small unassuming sapling appeared in the middle of it all before it too swelled.

The sapling grew to the size of an adult oak in a fraction of a second, but it didn't stop there. The tree continued to swell, growing large and large at an unthinkable pace and it did not stop until the canopy enveloped the horizon blocking the sky and swallowing Nevermore in its wake. Only then did all of the built up energy pour down from the canopy like falling leaves. The green energy washed over the heroes below and their health bars filled until their color was a matching shade of green.

Jaune was in awe as he stared up at the massive tree. It alone was something to behold, but he couldn't believe such a powerful ability existed. He had been on his last leg a moment ago, but now his health bar was filled back the brim and he even got a nice little health buff on top of that.

Jaune wasn't the only one to be rejuvenated either. All around him his guildmates let out sighs of relief and a quick glance was all it took to see that they were now just as fresh for the fight as he was. It was a good thing too, since a moment later the great tree having served its purpose dissolved into mist allowing Nevermore to get a clear line of sight on them once again. While at the same time, Dreadscale had managed to pull itself out of the rubble.

"Alright guys," Nora shouted to get everyone's attention. "No more acting alone! Stick in formation and allow them to come to us! Weiss you just focus on healing, everyone else make sure you cover her ass! We need to take one of these beasties out or we're going to be overwhelmed! Dreadscale is the most damaged to I say we focus our firepower on him!"

"What about the time limit?!" Jaune asked. "Don't we need to drop them within five minutes of each other!?"

"Don't worry about that!" Nora shot back. "Once our attention stops being divided like this, taking the other boss out won't take long."

"I'll take your word for it then!" Jaune replied.

"Dreadscale is coming!" Yang warned. "He looks real angry!"

"Wonder why?" Nora asked with a giggle. "Jaune your up, just try to keep big ugly's attention. Yang, Jade, Sun, Blake, and I will be your back up."

"Got it!" Jaune replied as he took a step towards the charging beast.

"Nevermore is swooping in too!" Ruby called out. "It looks like he's going for another feather barrage!"

Nora glanced skyward to see the avian boss circling over head. Then she looked to their red haired guardian. "Pyrrha, Nevermore is all yours. Ruby you're our best ranged option right now, keep focusing your fire on Nevermore. Just enough to soften him up for us!"

"Roger!" Ruby and Pyrrha replied in unison before Ruby levels her sniper rifle on the flying behemoth and begins to open fire.

Nevermore responded to Ruby's attack be unleashing a storm of razor sharp quills into the center of the party's formation. However Pyrrha was ready for that and activates one of her abilities known as projectile magnetism before stepping out in front of the red clad marksmen with her shield raised toward the sky. Then as if compelled by some unseen force, all the feathers changed trajectory in mid flight and made a beeline for the red haired guardian only for them to bounce harmlessly off her shield.

This moment reminded Pyrrha of a conversation she had, had with Jaune just a few days ago. It was about this very same ability. Jaune being a guardian himself also has this ability, but he hadn't found much of a use for it up till now, so he was wondering if she had any tips for him.

Pyrrha could say she was surprised, it applications for projectile magnetism are a bit limited. So she had told Jaune that like name implies it is a skill that effectively turns the casters whole body into a big magnet that draws in any and all projectiles regardless of their shape, size, or material. It didn't matter weather they're bullets, arrows, or even magical spells. All projectile attacks fired near the user would be redirected to them.

She went on to tell him that projectile magnetism is quite the useful ability for a tank to have in a group battle such as one they were currently engaged in. However, the ability of course has its cons as well as its pros. While it does have the benefit of forcing the enemy's to focus their attack on the tank, it also greatly increases their accuracy making the projectiles virtually impossible to dodge. For this reason it was not considered practical to use in player versus player game types, at least not in 1v1 battles, since a human would know how to take advantage of that. AI controlled monsters usually wouldn't, especially not of the beast variant.

Pyrrha also made mention of the fact that Assassin Tricksters like Jade also had a similar ability. Obviously it wouldn't serve them well to turn themselves into a huge target, so their version could be cast on others to enhance not only their own accuracy, but the accuracy of their allies as well. Jade rarely made use of the ability though, mainly because she along with most of their guildmembers happened to be quite confident in their marksmanship.

Of course that mattered little right now. Knowing that she needed to focus on the fight at hand, Pyrrha shook her head to dispel the memory then readied herself for the boss' next attack. That attack came in the form of the beast diving out of the sky straight towards head on. Then as it came in closer it spread out its wings to slow its momentum before outstretch its long talons as if trying to snatch her up off the ground and carry her away.

Pyrrha wasn't going to have that so she once again raised her shield high and shifted her stance into something resembling a half crouch. If the boss' plan was to lift her up, she wanted to get her center of gravity as low as possible.

Pyrrha's choice proved wise as a few seconds later, Nevermore slammed into her head on. The impact was great, but the guardian managed to stay on her feet and even push the boss back. Of course the great beast showed no signs of giving up and its talons scraped against her smooth shield searching for perches. Eventually they latched onto the shield itself and Nevermore began to flap its might wings in an attempt to rip the armament from its wielder's grasp.

Pyrrha's instincts told her to just release the shield instead of risking her arm being ripped off. However, losing her shield would prove a bit of a problem for her since it would not only leave her open to future attacks, but many of her guardian abilities both offensive and defensive required her to wield one for them to work at all. So she planted herself as best she could while the beast thrashed against her shield and began thrusting her spear into its chest.

Nevermore let out a shrill screech as Pyrrha's spear pieced its feathery hide and a critical hit marker popped up near the point of contact. Then its head violently jerked to the side as an explosive round detonated in its face.

Pyrrha spared a glance behind her to see Ruby shooting her a thumbs-up and sporting a wide grin. "I got your back Pyrrha!"

"Good shot Ruby!" Pyrrha cheered as she returned the smile and yanked her spear free from the boss' chest only to drive it back in even more forcefully than before.

Nevermore reeled back and thrashed its body as it was struck over and over again by the pin point accurate blows of both Ruby and Pyrrha. Finally having enough the beast released its grip and kicked off the guardians shield causing her yelp in surprise and fall back a step. Flapping its wings wildly, the boss quickly ascended above the where the roof of the building had once been before firing off another volley of deadly feathers.

Pyrrha promptly jump back a few more paces to put her directly in front of Ruby so she could block out the onslaught. Once the last feather pinged off her shield Ruby switched weapons and yelled out a quick warning. "Get down!" Pyrrha complied and dropped down on one knee. Then Ruby shouldered her trusty Rose Horn and took aim at their avian enemy. "Eat this bird brain!" She roared as she squeezed the trigger.

Ruby's Rose Horn roared as its rear launch tube erupts in flame and a single red rocket is shot forth towards her target. The boss seemed on concerned by the incoming projectile and launched a counter attack of its own by firing yet another feather volley. Then as the feathers and the red missile approached one another the second stage of Ruby's ultimate engaged. The one rocket opened and split apart creating over a dozen smaller rockets, but each promised fiery death to anything they struck.

Explosions rippled across the sky as feathers met rocket propelled explosives in mid flight. Though some feathers managed to avoid the blasts and fell upon our heroes. The damage that they had dealt was a pittance in comparison to the stray rockets that broke through the boss' attack and impacted across its flanks. The resulting blast took out a fairly decent chunk of the boss' life bar and sent it hurtling backwards until it disappeared below the platform.

"Yeah, I got him!" Ruby cheered.

"Still alive though and I'm sure he will be back soon!" Pyrrha warned.

"I know, I know." Ruby said as she gave a dismissive wave and slid her Rose Horn back over her shoulder and readied her sniper rifle. "I was just imagine how epic it would be if we managed to finish off our boss first, despite it only being the two of us."

Pyrrha hummed in thought before smiling and giving her command a nod of agreement. "That would be quite cool. However," She trailed off as she glanced over in the direction of their other party members. "I get the feeling that it is not going to be so easy."

"Huh?" Ruby muttered in confusion before she followed her allies gaze toward the other half of their party and the scorpion boss Dreadscale, or at least what was left of it.

While Dreadscale was still on most of its feet, its heal bar had been whittled down to practically a sliver and its body was fairing no better. One of his claws and hind legs had been shattered, no doubt Nora's doing. Several of baneful red eyes had also been completely gouged out leaving it mostly blind. On top of that, most of its hide was darkened by scorch marks.

"Oh." Was all Ruby could say as she took in the sight.

"My thoughts precisely." Pyrrha joked. After all it was clear to her that Dreadscale wasn't going to last much longer. It also seemed like the beast was well aware of its impending fate and had abandoned all semblance of self preservation in the hopes of taking at least a few of its enemies down with him. It thrashed and snapped and lunged at anything that moved without pause and with all the force its weakened body could muster.

Dreadscale was in a rage, just like the type of rage a berserker could enter. Most bosses had some sort of rage mode, at least those from the beast category anyway. Some were triggered naturally as the fight went on, others when the fight took too long, or when the boss was in its last stand like his one was now. Though, they all tended to have the same effect. They gave an increased attack speed, bonus damage resistance, and an attack damage buff.

Of course all of that didn't really seem to matter when the boss was back into a corner and surrounded by seven crusaders who were all either too fast for it to hit, or too stubborn to go down. A fact that was proven when Dreadscale took a swing at Yang with his one good claw only for her to bunny hope over it and dig her own claws into one its front most legs.

Dreadscale shrieked as it brought its claw back around to try swatting the blonde berserker off, but Jaune and Nora both jumped in the way. Once in front of the incoming attack, Jaune steady himself behind his shield and a defense boost ability to help absorb most of the blow and stop the claw in its tracks.

"Good work Jaunny, now it's my turn!" Nora howled before she slammed her warmaul down onto of the claw crushing it against the ground. "Time for a little snap, crackle, and pop!" She roared as she delivered a few more savage blows in quick secession casing the claw to crack and the limb holding it to dislocate.

Dreadscale cried out as its last claw arm feel limp and flames lapped across its right side courtesy of Blake's fireball jutsu. Then it felt the similar sting of Yang's claws claiming yet another one its legs causing him to stagger backward, but losing balance when it tried to put weight on its broken hind leg and it crumbled. However, the beast had not yet breathed its last and raised its tail for one last strike before taking aim at the creature that had started all of its pain.

Jaune saw the massive golden stringer coming for him and already had his shield raised to deflect it, weather it would work or not he was unsure. Defending against Dreadscale's stinger was hard enough when the boss wasn't in a frantic rage. On top of that, most of his defensive abilities were currently on cooldown so he couldn't rely on those bailing him out this. So instead he just hunkered down, grit his teeth, and hoped Weiss would be able to put him back together if it all went wrong.

Fortunately for Jaune, he never needed to find out if he could take the scorpion's blow. "Watch out Jaunny, I got this!" Nora shouted from her position beside the blonde guardian before she quickly shoved him out of the path of the attack.

"Nora what're you doing!?" Jaune yelled as he stumbled backward, but before he could get an answer Nora was impaled straight though the chest by the boss' stinger. Virtual viscera sprayed every where as the tip of the stinger breached Nora's back and Nora's health bar which had been sitting at about fifty percent, instantly dropped down to a sliver. "Nora!" Jaune screamed in horror.

Its stinger having finally claimed a victim, Dreadscale let out a guttural cry of what one could only assume was celebration. Eager to finish off his catch, Dreadscale hoisted Nora up off the ground before he slammed his tail back down onto the stone floor. However instead of the pleasant bone crunching thud it was expecting, the berserker's body seemed to bounce off the ground like she were rubber and an immune hit marker appeared above her. Feeling confused the boss began to violently shake the girl's limp body back and forth, before slamming her back down again. Again the immune hit marker popped up and the girl seemed unaffected.

Letting out a frustrated hiss, Dreadscale lowered Nora's body slightly so that the boss could get a better look at with his only remaining good eye. This was a choice the beast would quickly come to regret. He had expected to find a corpse on the end of his stinger and instead he was greeted by the berserker's toothy grin, which was nothing short of vicious. Nora was in death frenzy mode.

"What my turn already?" Nora asked. Dreadscale couldn't even respond before Nora pushed herself off the end of his stinger and rolled onto his back. Then she swung her war maul around to smash into the large limb that connected it to the boss' body. The tail bone cracked and snapped, it was all the boss could do keep the broken and wobbling limb raised and avoid stinging itself, but Nora was keen to change that. "Jade now!"

In response to Nora's command, Jade jumped out of thin air behind the beast before jamming her daggers deep into the join that connected the boss' tail with its body. Dreadscale screeched in agony as its already crippled tail crumbled under its own weight. Nora then activated her leap ability to propel herself back up to the falling limb and rode the stinger all the way back down aiding and directing it's decent until it came right down on top of the beast's last good eye gouging it out.

Nora landed with a roll but quickly shot back up to her feet before shouting. "This is what happens when you mess with the Crusaders!" Then she lined up to deliver the final blow. Using the beast's own stinger as a giant nail she slammed her hammer down and sealed its fate.

The massive stinger was forced right through Dreadscale's body until it punctured his underbelly and at last the boss' last sliver of health vanished. Without so much as a cry of pain the beast collapsed in a broken and bloody heap, never to rise again, at least until it response.

"Hell yeah, nice combo Nora! It looks like we're having shell fish tonight guys!" Yang cheered.

"Umm Yang." Jaune spoke up.

"Hmm what is it Jaune?" Yang asked.

"Well you do know that just because they have pincers doesn't mean scorpions are the same thing as crabs." Jaune pointed out. "Secondly could we not do sea food? I'm not good with sea food." For some reason that statement earned the blonde guardian a very odd look from their black clad ninja. "What?"

Blake shrugged in response before looking away. "It's nothing. I just thought I heard something crazy just now, but I'm sure it was just my imagination."

"Okay then." Jaune said sounding more than a little confused.

"Jaune we can talk about Blake's weird fish fetish later! Right now we have bigger ones to fry!" Nora declared as Weiss went to work healing her and she directed their attention to the winged boss Nevermore that was still very much alive.

"My what!?" Blake hissed as her face started to turn red. However, she went ignored by everyone but Yang, who was currently doubled over and cackling like a manic.

"Focus guys, were on the clock now!" Nora commanded causing the chatter to cease almost instantly. Then she turned her gaze towards the green clad assassin standing silently at her side. "Jade, I trust you know what to do?" Jade simply gave a curt nod before stepping back and vanishing in puff of smoke. "Everyone, get ready to hit that bird with everything you got!"

"Roger!" Everyone shouted in unison.

While Ruby and Pyrrha had been too preoccupied fending off an enraged Nevermore at the time of Dreadscale's defeat to see it, the sudden silence followed by cheers of victory were telling. Though that was not nearly as tell as when a moment later Jade shadow stepped right behind the rampaging boss in mid air, activated her mark for death ability to target the boss, then immediately unleashed a flurry of blows to its vital points inflicting massive damage.

As Nevermore struggled to shake off the green clad assassin, the rest of the party appeared out of Pyrrha's peripheral vision. They each screamed their own battle cry as they charged forward with reckless abandon. A burst of icy lances slammed into the boss' front side causing it reel back and start to loose some altitude. Then an intense ball of fire engulfed its vision. The boss could only see red and feel hot pain coursing through its body as it impacted the ground. That pain only became worse as more blades dug into its flesh and blunt weapons crashed against its feathery hide.

Nevermore clawed, pecked, and threshed. It tried to lift itself back up into the sky where it would have the advantage, but its wings were crimpled. It tried to let out a screech to scatter and disable its attacks, but found that its beak was broken and a set of claws had been lodged in its throat.

The boss was beaten and Nora was winding up for yet another kill when Pyrrha reached out and placed her hand on her leaders should to halt her. "Nora, wait a moment."

Nora looked back with confusion set on her face. "What is the meaning of this? Why do you stop your queen?" She demanded.

"Well, I was just thinking since it is his first time raiding with us and he's done such a good job and all, maybe the honor should go to Jaune? He will get more experience that way right?" Pyrrha suggested while motioning to her fellow guardian.

Nora tilled her head while she stared at Pyrrha. Then she hummed in thought before looked past her to the boy in question. It was true that the boy had done rather well. She supposed she could let him have this one. "Very well, since it is in the guilds best interests your queen shall allow this!" She declared before lowering her weapon and motioning for Jaune to step forward. "Jaune if you would like, this kill is all yours."

"Me, you want me to do it?" Jaune questioned while stealing a glance at Pyrrha who nodded happily. Nora just gave him a look that said to move it along. "Alright, I got this!" He declared as he stepped forward with his sword drawn.

The boss was still very much alive, but was battered and pinned to the ground. Its neck was exposed, that was Jaune's target. He raised his sword high, took aim, and focused all his strength before bringing the blade down. Jaune's sword dug into the boss' neck slicing skin and muscle before striking bone. For a moment it looked like the blade might get stick in the spine, but Jaune pushed through cleaving the beast's head clean off and causing its health bar to shatter into little pixels before fading to nothing.

The moment the boss fell, long series of in game notifications appeared in everyone's inbox.

**Game Message: Emerald Forest Dungeon Complete!**

**Game Message: Jaune of Arc has earned the Achievement: Into the Woods.**

**Game Message: Jaune of Arc has earned the Achievement: Players and Pieces.**

"Congratulations Jaune, you did it!" Pyrrha cheered as she jogged up to stand beside her fellow guardian.

"Thanks Pyr, that was amazing!" He replied.

"Finally, is it really over!?" Yang asked.

"Not quite Yang, aren't you forgetting something?" Nora asked as she went to work digging through a treasure chest that appeared after one of the boss' deaths. Meanwhile Blake and Jade busied themselves with another. "Oh, this head dress will sell for a pretty penny." She thought allowed as she pulled out a headdress in the shape of a bird's skull complete with a beak.

Yang blinked in confusion. "What do you mean? We're done right?"

Ruby slapped a hand on her forehead before she started to shake it in disbelief. "Don't tell me you forgot why we came here in the first place?" She asked. Then when her sister only gave her a blank stare in return she let out a loud sigh. "Geez sis, alright we came here the bonus boss! You know the one we can only fight if we get this bloody achievement!"

"Oh yeah, totally forgot about that!" Yang declared before looking around. "So, umm we got the achievement. How do we trigger the figh-" Yang was cut off by the sound of a low roar from somewhere below their platform.

With the loot collected and a new challenge ahead of them, Nora stepped away her treasure chest and raised her head. "Prepare for battle Crusaders!"

As the party members once again drew forth their weapons and moved to create a battle formation the low roar that they heard before returned and began to build in intensity before a smooth yet booming female voice cut through the air. **"What is all of this racket?! I can't even get a few hundred years of sleep without somebody bothering me!"**

It was at that moment that the structure began to shake as great plums of green mist erupted from the lower levels shrouding the land below. A moment later and a massive figure burst through the fog to sore above the hero's position, a pair of large scaly green wings carrying it aloft as it circle them. A pair of bright red serpent like eyes looked down on the Crusaders appraisingly.

"It's a dragon." Jaune whispered.

As Blake looked up to meet the great beast's eyes her own amber orbs widened in realization. "That isn't just any dragon! Look at the name!" She urged them.

Everyone did as instructed and looked up in unison to see the small name hovering over the dragon's head right before it swooped down to land on their platform. Only instead of landing on four large scaly green legs, it landed on two thin dark skinned and human like feet. In an instant the massive form of the dragon seemed to vanish, its wings, claws, scales all receding to reveal what appeared to be a young human woman with dark skin and light green hair. The red eyes remained and were firmly focused on the heroes before her.

"My apologies, I suppose I am being rude. Allow me to introduce myself before we begin." The dragon girl declared. "I am Sustrai, the Emerald Dragon!"

**To Be Continued...**

**Author's Note:**

> So what did you think? If you have any thoughts on this work or want to see more in the future let me know in the comments below.


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